I 1.0VENANTERS
J. King Hbwison
THE COVENANTERS
^^^'^
TVoToemATvnc bv XLssBf r iB juiran ■
JAMF.S GRAHAM, FIRST MARQUIS OF MnNTROSE.
THE
COVENANTERS
A HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND FROM
THE REFORMATION TO THE REVOLUTION, BY
TAMES KING HEWISON
M.A., D.D. (edin.): fellow ofthe society of
ANTIQUARIES OF SCOTLAND : EDITOR OF THE
WORKS OF ABBOT NINIAN WINZET: AUTHOR OF
'the ISLE OF BUTE IN FHE OLDEN TIME,' ETC.
IN TWO VOLUMES
VOLUME II
GLASGOW : JOHN SMITH AND SON
1908
Edinburgh : T. and A. Constahle, Printers to HJs Majesty
CONTENTS
CHAPTER XVIII
SCOTLAND'S THREE RULERS— CHURCH, CHARLES, AND
CROMWELL— 1650-1651
King Charles subscribes Covenant, 23rd
June 1650 .....
Cromwell invades Scotland, 22nd July
Leslie's Covenanted host
Purging out Malignants
Lewdness in the Cardan age
Cromwell's pious Declarations
Skirmishes before Edinburgh
Cromwell retreats to Dunbar
The West Kirk Resolution, 13th August
1650
Cromwell's disclaimer .
Declaration at Dunfermline
Deception by Charles .
Cromwell in a trap at Dunbar
Leslie's position at Dunbar, 2nd Sep
tember
Carelessness of the Scots army
The Battle of Dunbar, 3rd September
1650
' Dunbar Drove' ....
Cruel fate of Scots prisoners
Cromwell enters Edinburgh, 7th Sep
tember
Leslie's troubles ....
The Public Resolutions
James Guthrie and the Protesters
The King under surveillance
9
9
10
12
13
13
14
15
16
16
17
'7
18
'The Start,' 4th October 1650
The Forfar Bond
Collapse of Royalist rising .
Whiggamore conference at Dumfries
The Remonstrance — a Western Cove
nant .....
The King's vow ....
Whiggamores crushed
Origin of the Resolulioners .
Church ordains fasting and humiliation
Coronation of Charles 11. at Scone, ist
January 1651 .
King Charles's oath . . . .
The secret policy of Charles
Charles 11. and Lady Ann Campbell .
Parliament meets at Perth, 13th March
1651
Act securing Covenanters .
Act of Classes repealed, 2nd June 1651
Military successes of Cromwell .
Charles and Scots army march into
England . . . . . .
Battle of Worcester, 3rd September 1651
Wanderings of King Charles
Assembly at St. Andrews, Perth, and
Dundee in July . . . .
Deposition of Protesters
PAGE
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32
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33
34
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35
VI
THE COVENANTERS
CHAPTER XIX
THE RULE OF THE IRONSIDES— 1651-1660
Cromwell's ' crowning mercy ' . 38
Alured captures Scots Council at Alyth 39
Siege of Dundee, ist September 1651 . 39
Subjugation of Scotland, 1652 . 40
English annexation of Scotland . -41
'The Tender' 41
Appointment of English judges . 42
Submission of Argyll . . 42
Rival Assemblies in Edinburgh, 1652 . 43
Highlanders rise under Glencairn, 1653 43
Cromwell appointed Lord Protector 44
Edinburgh Assembly dissolved by
Colonel Cotterel . . . -45
Protest of Protesters ; aggressiveness of
Protesters . . . . .46
Cromwell's policy . . -47
Monck, his life and work, 1608-1670 . 47
Dispersion of Royalist forces
Cromwell's attempt to settle religion
Cromwell supports toleration
Failure of Presbyterianism in England
Advent of James Sharp
Envoys of the Protesters
Wariston becomes a Cromwellian
Death of Cromwell, 3rd September 1658
Accession of Richard Cromwell, 1659
Monck at Westminster
Monck prefers Presbyterianism
Sharp's negotiations and craft
Triumph of Hyde's diplomacy
Sharp's share in the Restoration
Monck a cautious plotter
Resolutioners congratulate the King
48
49
5°
51
52
S3
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
62
CHAPTER XX
THE RESTORATION— 1660 1661
Popular joy at the Restoration, May
1660 .....
Sharp plays false, June 1660
The office of Hyde .
The arrest of Argyll
The King reconstitutes the Scots
Government ....
Severities of Privy Council .
Return of Sharp ; the volte face of
Lauderdale ....
Plan of the treacherous trio .
Churchmen grateful and jubilant
64
65
67
67
68
69
70
71
72
Inquisition instituted .
Sharp an enigma
Sharp's sin .
EarlofMiddleton, 1619-1674
First Restoration Parliament, ist Jan
1661
The exhumation and burial of Montrose
Statutes of 166 1 .
King Charles, Pope of Scotland .
Statute repudiating the Covenant, 25th
January 1661 .
Rescissory statute
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
80
81
CONTENTS
Act concerning religion
Act appointing Restoration Day
Terror created by new statutes
Argyll summoned to trial
Argyll's indictment and defences
Monck's incriminating letters
Argyll in prison .
Argyll on the scaffold, 27th May
Character of Argyll
Leighton toasts Middleton .
Indictment of James Guthrie
Doom of Guthrie
1661
I'AGE
81
82
82
83
84
85
86
87
87
88
89
90
Guthrie in prison ....
Guthrie's testimony and martyrdom,
1st June 1661 . . . . .
Execution of Govan ....
The summons of Samuel Rutherford .
Death of Rutherford, 29th March 1661
Escape of Patrick Gillespie .
Robert MacWard and Alexander
Moncrieff . . . . .
Robert Trail, James Kirko, Sir John
Chiesley, and Wariston .
The Earl of Traquair, a beggar .
Vll
i'AGE
91
92
93
94
95
95
96
97
98
CHAPTER XXI
CONDITION OF THE COUNTRY IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY—
THE COVENANTERS : THE GENTLEMEN OF THE RESTORATION
Buckle's libel of the Covenanters
Donaldson, pastor of Dalgety
Virtues of the Covenanters
Music and mirth
Scottish sports ....
Humanitarianism of the Covenanting
ministry
Wit of William Guthrie
Kindness of Covenanting times
Spiritual condition of Scotland (1649
1661)
Kirkton's testimony corroborated
The Three R's in 1642
Pictures from Naphtali
Survivals of Paganism
Belief in spirits ; witchcraft
Public worship .
Results of Westminster Assembly
I'AGE
lOI
102
102
104
106
106
108
109
109
IIO
1 1 1
112
114
Innovations in church services .
Gentlemen of the Restoration
Charles 11. ; James 11.
Lauderdale ; Rothes .
Scandalous aristocracy
Bankrupt gentry
Ruffians of the law .
' The Muscovy Beast ' ; Sir James
Turner .....
John Graham of Claverhouse
Carnal Carolan cavaliers .
Archbishop Sheldon ; Archbishop
Sharp . . . . . •
Archbishop Burnet ; Bishop Paterson
Character of Episcopal clergy .
Character of the persecuted clergy
Corrupt rulers ....
Aims of Covenanting agitators .
PAGE
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IIS
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
122
123
124
125
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126
127
Vlll
THE COVENANTERS
CHAPTER XXII
RECONSTRUCTION OF THE CHURCH— i66i
Various parties in Scotland
Clerical opposition to reconstruction
of Church ....
Synod of Fife, 2nd April 1661 .
Erastianisni of Aberdeen Synod
New Church legislation
Sharp's progress in defection
Letter of Sharp to Middleton, May
1661
Charles resolves to restore Episco
pacy .....
Royal decree proclaimed, 6th Septem
bar 1 66 1
Protest of Robert Baillie .
Blair accuses Sharp of treachery
Ejectment of Blair ; his death, 1666
The new bishops
Douglas refuses to apostatise
Sharp apjiointed Primate, 14th Nov
ember 1661 .
Fairfull, Archbishop of Glasgow
Hamilton, Bishop of Galloway
Leighton, Bishop of Dunblane .
Leighton, a hypochondriac and mystic
Leighton signs the Covenant in which
he did not believe ....
Scottish hierarchy consecrated in West-
minster, 1 661 . . . .
Wishart, Bishop of Edinburgh
Consecration of other bishops, 1662 .
List of the bishops ; their emoluments
The prelates carnal ....
The second session of Parliament,
1662 ......
Re-establishment of Episcopacy
I'AGE ,
128 Act of Oblivion . . . .
The Billeting Act, 9th September
129 1662 .....
129 Recall of Middleton .
130 Degradation of Solemn League and
131 Covenant at Linlithgow
131 Middleton and the Court visit West
Country ....
132 Edict of eviction and evil effects of
the proclamation .
133 Leighton's diocesan work .
Innovations of the Prelates
134 Robert Baillie dies of a broken heart
135 August 1662 ....
135 Carlyle's portrait of Baillie
136 Scotia sub Cruce ...
137 Eviction of Donald Cargill
138 Doom of Argyll averted
Eviction of John Blackadder
138 I E,\pulsion of John Welsh .
j Parliament summons the ministers;
138 I 1662 .....
139 Thomas Wylie and Hugh M'Kail
140 John Brown of Wamphray
John Livingstone
141 Fate of other clergy .
Eviction of Presbyterian clergy .
142 Andrew Donaldson .
1 43 ' The King's Curates '
144 Sir Robert Moray's testimony .
145 Riots at churches
146 Origin of the Galloway Rising
The Earlston Gordons
146 Peden the Prophet .
147 The Lowlanders incensed .
PACE
148
149
150
150
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152
153
'54
155
'56
156
157
158
158
159
159
160
161
162
163
.63
164
164
'65
165
166
167
167
16S
CONTENTS
IX
CHAPTER XXIII
THE RULE OF ROTHES AND THE RISING OF RULLION GREEN-
1663-1667
The mission of Lauderdale, June 1663
The Duke of Rothes ....
Session of Parliament, 1663
Johnston, Lord Wariston ; his execu-
tion; his character . . 170-
James Wood's testimony
Sharp's vindictiveness
Fate of Middleton .
' The Bishops' drag-net '
Proposed synod
'Twenty Mile Act,' 13th August 1663
Exactions by Government officials
Disturbances in Galloway ; Sir James
Turner, 1615-1686 .
Changes in the hierarchy .
Sharp miserable
Court of High Commission, 1664
Sharp humbled and exalted
The new Commission; 'The Crail Cou
James Scott of Ancrum's case .
Cruelty to Alexander Smith
Sufferings of James Hamilton and
Porterfield ....
William Guthrie of Fenwick, 1620-65
Spreul's case ....
Foreign politics and troubles with
Holland and France . . 185
Measures for suppressing the Whigs .
Turner's device ....
An Apologetkal Relation, 1665 .
Cause of rising in the Glenkens, 1666
Rescue by Barscob ....
Muster of conventiclers
Capture of Turner in Dumfries .
VOL. a.
69
69
69
71
72
72
73
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
79
80
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
S7
88
89
90
91
92
92
March of the regulars and insurgents
under Commande: James Wallace
Covenant renewed at Lanark
Insurgents march to Edinburgh
The last stand at Rullion Green
General Dalyell's position .
The fight on Rullion Green
Captain Paton's heroism .
Losses by the fight .
Sharp's delight after the victory
Hugh M'Kail's fate .
Trial and execution of prisoners
Neilson of Corsock .
Doom of Robertson and others
M'Kail's testimony .
Scene at M'Kail's execution
Gallant ending of Colquhoun
The Justices in Glasgow and Ayr
Sutherland, the Christian hangman
Sharp, an incubus on the politicians
Meeting of Parliament, 1667
Atrocities of Dalyell and Drummond
The shooting of David Finlay .
Villainies of the soldiery .
Lauderdale's investigations and .Sir
Robert Moray's report, July 9, 1667
The testimony of the Covenanters
corroborated .....
The resurrection of Sharp .
Conciliation advocated by Moray
Turner discharged and Ballantine
banished, 1668 ....
Failure of Moray's policy .
Michael Bruce and Hog of Kiltearn .
194
19s
196
196
198
199
200
201
201
203
204
205
206
207
208
2og
209
210
21 r
212
212
213
214
215
216
216
217
218
219
219
THE COVENANTERS
CHAPTER XXIV
THE SCHEMES OF ANGELIC LEIGHTON AND IRON-HANDED
LAUDERDALE— 1668-1678
Robert Leighton, a visionary
The Accommodation
James Mitchell, ' stickit minister,
shoots at Sharp, nth July 166S
Sharp scared out of his wits
Advent of Gilbert Burnet .
A conditional Indulgence, 1669
Opposition of irreconcilables
A new western Remonstrance .
The new Royal Pope .
Deposition of Archbishop Alexande
Burnet .....
Bishop Leighton's ' Six Evangelists '
Parliament of July 1670
New 'Clanking Acts,' 1670
Conference at Paisley, 14th December
1670
Development of conventicling .
Blackadder's reminiscences
Gilbert Burnet's ingenious project
The second Indulgence, 2nd Septeni
ber 1672
Lauderdale's ' Queen of Love '
Parliament, June 1672
Estimate of Leighton
Clerical victims of the law
Bishops a failure
Rottenness in high places .
Attacks on Lauderdale frustrated
Mitchell's confession and
ment ....
Prison on the Bass Rock .
'The Blynk,' 1674 .
Capture of Peden
nn prison
PAGE
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222
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224
225
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226
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228
229
230
231
232
234
235
236
237
237
238
239
239
240
241
242
243
243
244
The widows' petition
Fines, escheats, and fugitations .
Case of Thomas Forrester .
Conformists desire a National Synod
Sharp and Lauderdale suppress Bishop
Ramsay ....
The policy of iron and blood
Letters of Intercommuning, 6th
August 1675 ....
Outlaws in Fife — Donald Cargill
Richard Cameron .
John Balfour — ' Burly' — of Kinloch
David Hackston of Rathillet
Brutal torture of James Mitchell, 167
A fresh Inquisition, ist March 1676
Convention of the outed clergy. May
1676 .....
The Scots Star Chamber .
Ker of Kersland ; Donaldson .
Exiles in Holland
Assembly of Presbyterian parties, 167
James Eraser of Brea
Prisoners on the Bass
Conventicles .... 2
Lauderdale in Scotland, 1677 .
Sir George Mackenzie of Ro.sehaugh
Affair at Kinloch
Scotland under martial law, 1677
Muster of the Highland host, 1678
Return of Claverhouse, 1678
' The Black Bond ' . . .
March of the Highlanders
King Charles approves of the exped;
tion
PAGE
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247
248
249
252
253
253
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257
258
258
259
260
261
61-263
263
264
265
266
267
267
268
269
270
CONTENTS
XI
Meeting of Parliament, June 1678 . 271
Trial of James Mitchell, 7th January
1678 272
Perjury of Privy Councillors . -2 73
Execution of Mitchell, i8th January
t678 274
Punishment of the Whigs .
Scuffle at Whitekirk .
Blackadder's conventicle in Irongray
parish .....
Invention of thumbscrews .
275
276
276
277
CHAPTER XXV
THE EXIT OF SHARP— 1679
The harrying of William Veitch
Stripping conventiclers
New Commissioners of the Peace
Drubbing of Major Johnston
Enormities of Sheriff- depute Car
michael .....
Plot to dispatch Sharp
Deliberations of the twelve plotters
The final labours of Sharp .
Sharp on the road to St. Andrews
278 I A chase and a deadly assize on Sharp 286
279 The cou/> de grace, ^rd May i6Tg .. 287
280 The dispatch of Sharp preconcerted . 288
281 Estimate of Archbishop Sharp . . 289
Vengeance of the Government and
282 j flight of the assassins . . .290
283 Richard Cameron ; the irreconcilables 291
284 I Sir Robert Hamilton, , . .291
285 Testimony at Rutherglen, 29th May
285 1679 ...... 292
CHAPTER XXVI
THE RISE OF CLAVERHOUSE— 1678-1679
Lineage of Graham of Claverhouse . 294
Views of Claverhouse . . . 295
Personal appearance of Claverhouse . . 296
Morrison's description . . . 297
Torfoot's delineation ; a serving-maid's
reminiscences . . . .298
Claverhouse appointed Sheriff; his
love proposal . . . -299
Drumclog and Loudoun Hill . . 300
Battle of Drumclog, ist June 1679 . 301
Defeat and flight of Claverhouse . 302
Hamilton and the 'No Quarter' order
The march of the insurgents
Victors in Glasgow ....
Hamilton, a feckless general
Divided councils ....
The Hamiltonians, Extremists, Moder-
ates
The Hamilton Declaration, 13th June
1679
Arrival of Monmouth and an army
Bothwell Bridge ....
3°3
304
305
306
306
307
307
308
309
xu
THE COVENANTERS
The fight, 22nd June 1679
Stampede of Covenanters .
Surrender of a craven mob
Prisoners enter Edinburgh
Sufferings in Greyfriars' Churchyard
The King's gratitude
The Act of Indemnity
Two clerical victims — Kid and King
Trial of refusers of the bond
PAGH I
311 !
312 i
3'4
315 i
3'6 I
3'7 i
318 i
Thomas Brown, Andrew Sword, James
Wood, John Waddell, John Clide,
executed, iSth NovcmbLr 1679 . 319
Favourites enriched with forfeitures . 320
The third Indulgence . . -321
Indictment of Lauderdale and his
policy 322
Forfeiture of heritors in the south-
west 323
CHAPTER XXVII
THE REMNANT— 1679-1682
Suffering, the cult of the persecuted .
The Duke of York in Holyrood, 1680
Return of Richard Cameron, October
1679
Cargill, Douglas, and otl^Li field-
preachers ....
Capture and death of He'nry Hall
The Queensferry Paper, June 1680
The Sanquhar Declaration, 22nd June
1680
Tenor of the Declaration .
Doom of Captain Niving .
The fight at Ayrsmoss, 22nd July
Fate of the vanquished
The brutal ending of Hackston .
Aftermath of Battle of Bothwell Bridge
At Torwood, Cargill excommunicates
the King, September 1680
Execution of Skene, Stewart, and
Potter
Torture of Spreul . . . .
The Gibbites or Sweet Singers .
Cargill visits Gibb . . . .
324
325
325
327
328
329
329
331
332
333
334
335
336
337
338
339
340
341
PAGE
The Gibbites in Canongate Tolbooth,
1681-1682 342
Blackadder sent to the Bass, 1681 . 343
Gabriel Semple and Fraser in prison 344
Examination of Isobel Alison and
Marion Harvey .... 345
Executions of Alison and Harvey,
Gougar, Millar, and Sangster . 346
Hay and Pitilloh, martyrs from Fife . 347
Capture of Cargill by Bonshaw . . 347
Trial of Cargill and others . 348
Death of Rothes .... 349
Cargill, Smith, Boig, Thomson, and
Cuthill on the scaffold, 27th July
1681 349
Argyll's ill-timed interjection . . 350
The Parliament of 168 1 . . -35'
The Test 352
Paterson's explication ; views of
clergy 353
Argyll's caveat ; his trial . • 354
Escape of Argyll . . 355
Pranks of students in Edinburgh . 355
CONTENTS
Xlll
Impeachment of Hatton
Six fresh victims
Dalyell's brutality
Renwick's bold exploit
. 356 Lanark Declaration, 12 th January
• 356 j 1682 358
• 357 ': Unpopularity of the Test . . . 359
. 358 Influence of the Duke of York . . 360
CHAPTER XXVIII
THE POLICY OF ROPE AND GUN— 1682-1683
Chancellor Gordon, a rising R(;yalist .
The Marquis of Queensberry ; Moray
Exit of Lauderdale, 24th August 1682
Agents for obliterating dissent .
The Reformed Bishop
Authorisation of Liturgy .
Archbishop Ross and Bishop Paterson
Professor Laurence Charteris
Wodrow's stories of brutality now
corroborated ....
Invasion of Chcisley's house by soldiers,
1682
Horrors of this epoch
Patrick Walker's youthful exploit
The subjugator of the westlands
Method of Claverhouse
Claverhouse's opinion of the situation
Robbery by Claverhouse .
Convention of the Societies, June 168;
Claverhouse opposes the Dalrymples
Triumph of Claverhouse .
Trials of Patrick Vernor
Henry Erskine ....
Claverhouse shoots William Graham
1682 (?) ....
The Despot's Champion
The Graham tragedies in the IVod-
rojv MSS. ....
36 1
362
362
363
364
364
36s
366
367
367
368
369
370
571
372
372
373
374
374
375
376
377
378
Chris
De
James Gray's case . . . ,
Robert Nairn, Bonhill
The ' Lady ' of Cavers ; Ure uf Shar
garton and other prisoners
The Bloody Vintage, 1682
Execution of William Harvey
tian Fyfe sentenced to death .
Gray, an English sufferer .
Three Cargillites hanged, isth
cember 1682 ....
Intrepidity of Alexander Home,
martyr ......
Reward of Claverhouse
Variety of oppressors and oppressions
Muir of Glanderston, Michael Potter,
and M'Gilligen . . . .
Laurie of Blackwood
Claverhouse in London meddles with
the policy of the Crown
Cruel proclamation, 13th April 1683
The last offer of mercy
Claverhouse now a Privy Councillor,
1683
Sufferings of the Caldwell family ; John
Nisbet hanged . . . .
John Wilson's testimony .
Children's Covenants
The projected Carolina colony, 1682 .
PAGE
378
379
380
381
382
383
3 84
385
386
3S7
388
3S9
390
39'
39-
393
394
395
396
397
XII
THE COVENANTERS
The fight, 22i\d June 1679
Stampede of Covenanters .
Surrender of a craven mob
Prisoners enter Edinburgh
Sufferings in Greyfriars' Churchyard
The King's gratitude
The Act of Indemnity
Two clerical victims — Kid and King
Trial of refusers of the bond
l-AGE j
• 3
lo :
1
• 3
n 1
• 3
12 [
• 3
'3
3
14
■ 3
'^ 1
• 3
,6
3
'7
• 3
iS
Thomas Brown, Andrew Sword, James
Wood, John Waddell, John Glide,
executed, i8th November 1679 • 3^9
Favourites enriched with forfeitures . 320
The tliird Indulgence . . -321
Indictment of Lauderdale and his
policy 322
Forfeiture of heritors in the south-
west 323
CHAPTER XXVII
THE REMNANT— 1679-16S2
Suffering, the cult of the persecuted .
The Duke of York in Holyrood, 1680
Return of Richard Cameron, October
1679
Cargill, Douglas, and otlur field
preachers ...
Capture and death of Henry Hall
The Queensferry Paper, June 1680
The Sanquhar Declaration, 22nd June
1680
Tenor of the Declaration .
Doom of Captain Niving .
The fight at Ayrsmoss, 12nd July
Fate of the vanquished
The brutal ending of Hackston .
Aftermath of Battle of Bothwell Bridge
At Torwood, Cargill excommunicates
the King, September 1680
Execution of Skene, Stewart, and
Potter
Torture of Spreul . . . .
The Gibbites or Sweet Singers .
Cargill visits Gibb . . . .
PAGE
324 j
325 i
1
I
325
327
328 i
329
329
331
332
333
334
335
336
337
33^
339
340
341
The Gibbites in Canongate Tolbooth,
1681-1682
Blackadder sent to the Bass, 1681
Gabriel Semple and Fraser in prison
Examination of Isobel Alison and
Marion Harvey ....
Executions of Alison and Harvey,
Gougar, Millar, and Sangster
Hay and Pitilloh, martyrs from Fife
Capture of Cargill by Bonshaw .
Trial of Cargill and others
Death of Rothes
Cargill, Smith, Boig, Thomson, and
Cuthill on the scaffold, 27th July
1681
Argyll's ill-timed interjection
The Parliament of 168 1
The Test ......
Paterson's explication ; views of
clergy ......
Argyll's caveat ; his trial .
Escape of Argyll
Pranks of students in Edinburgh
342
343
344
34S
346
347
347
348
349
349
350
351
352
353
354
355
355
CONTENTS
xm
Impeachment of Hatton
Six fresh victims
Dalyell's brutahty
Renwick's bold exploit
356 i Lanark Declaration, 12th January
356
357
1682
Unpopularity of the Test
. 358 Influence of the Duke of York
• 358
• 359
• 360
CHAPTER XXVIII
THE POLICY OF ROPE AND GUN— 1682-1683
Chancellor Gordon, a rising Royalist .
The Marquis of Queensberry ; Moray
Exit of Lauderdale, 24th August 1682
Agents for obliterating dissent .
Th^ Reformed Bishop
Authorisation of Liturgy .
Archbisho]) Ross and Bishop Paterson
Professor Laurence Charteris
Wodrow's stories of brutality now
corroborated
Invasion of Chcisley's house by soldiers,
1682
Horrors of this epoch
Patrick Walker's youthful exploit
The subjugator of the westlands
Method of Claverhouse
Claverhouse's opinion of the situation
Robbery by Claverhouse .
Convention of the Societies, June 16S
Claverhouse opposes the Dalrymples
Triumph of Claverhouse .
Trials of Patrick Vernor
Henry Erskine ....
Claverhouse shoots William Graham
1682 (?)
T/te Despot's Champion
The Graham tragedies in the Wod-
row MSS. ....
I'ACE
361
362
362
363
364
364
365
366
366
367
367
368
369
370
371
372
372
373
374
374
375
37f'
377
378
James Gray's case ....
Robert Nairn, Bonhill
The ' Lady ' of Cavers ; Ure uf Shar-
garton and other prisoners
The Bloody Vintage, 1682
Execution of William Harvey ; Chris-
tian Fyfe sentenced to death .
Gray, an English sufferer .
Three Cargillites hanged, 151I) De-
cember 1682
Intrepidity of Alexander Home,
martyr ......
Reward of Claverhouse
Variety of oppressors and oppressions
Muir of Glanderston, Michael Potter,
and M'Gilligen ....
Laurie of Blackwood
Claverhouse in London meddles with
the policy of the Crown
Cruel proclamation, 131b April 1683
The last offer of mercy
Claverhouse now a Privy Councillor,
1683
Sufferings of the Caldwell family ; John
Nisbet hanged ....
John Wilson's testimony .
Children's Covenants
The projected Carolina colony, 1682 .
378
379
381
382
383
3 84
3S5
386
387
3S9
390
391
392
393
394
395
396
397
XIV
THE COVENANTERS
The Rye House Plot, 1 683 ; the Courts
on Circuit ....
Bogue, an unworthy martyr
Claverhouse demands Bogue's death
Rescue at Inchbelly Bridge, 8th June
1683
Gallant deaths of AVharry and Smith
Renunciations of property
The Justiciary Court in Edinburgh
1 2th July 1683
Heroic exit of Guillan
j Earlston in the boots, 23rd November
398 I 1683
399 Robert Hamilton condemned
400 fififects of the repressive methods
.\n almost incredible statement of
401 Wodrow substantiated ; blockhouses
402 I for Claverhouse ....
403 The valiant ending of John Dick
The advent of James Rcnwick in
404 September 1683 ....
405
40(1
407
408
409
410
411
CHAPTER XXIX
THE ADVENT OF RENWICK : CLAVERHOUSE AND THE
KILLING TIMES— 1683-1685
Ubiquitous Peden, 1626-1686 . . 413
James Renwick, 1662-168S . 413-415
The Societies of nonconformists . 415
Renwick's call and fugitive ministry . 416
A new drag-net for Covenanters . 417
Another trio hanged, 22nd February
1684 418
Trial of slayers of Barscob, March
1684 419
The infamous Cessnock case 420
Five men hanged in Glasgow . .421
Nisbet executed . . . .422
Influential sufferers ; Captain J<jhn
Paton of Meadowhead executed . 423
Chivalry of General Dalyell . -423
Prisons crammed; emptied into planta-
tions ...... 424
The great Porteous roll of 1684 . 425
Claverhouse woos Jean Cochrane . 425
Marriage of Claverhouse, loth June
1684 426
Shooting of Shillilau, July 1684 427
Government's
national discontent
William Spence ;
into
torture of
' thumbikins '
introduced, 23rd July 1684 . . 42S
Claverhouse, Dalyell, etc., interested
in torture of Carstares . 429
Taiket tortured and hanged 429
Patrick Walker's experiences . . 430
Ambuscade and rescue of prisoners
in Enterkin, 29th July 1684 . -431
Heroes of the ambuscade . -432
Trial and execution of the Enterkin
rescuers ..... 433
The Campbells of Over-Wellwood . 434
A red-letter day, 6th September 1684 435
Changes in the hierarchy, and death
of Burnet 436
Claverhouse credited with pity . . 437
Minutes of the autumn Circuit Courts 438
The 'flies,' or informers . . . 439
The Apologetical Declaration, Sth
November 1684 . . . 440
CONTENTS
XV
Aims of the Renwickian party .
The Abjuration Oath, 25th November
1684
Victims at the altar ....
A weird incident ....
The assassination of Peter Peirson
The assassins .....
Four assenters to the Declaration
hanged
James Graham's case
PAGE
PAGE
441
A deadly scuffle at Auchencloy, i8th
December 1684 .... 448
442
Claverhouse exhumes the fallen wan-
443
derers 449
444
Baillie of Jerviswood .... 450
445
Trial of Baillie 451
446
Grizzel Hume ..... 452
A new commission, 1685 . . . 453
447
Instructions — warrant for drowning . 454
447
CHAPTER XXX
THE INLET OF POPERY— 1685-1688
Claverhouse and Queensberry quarrel 455
General Maitland's extraordinary testi-
mony 456
Grierson of Lag, 1657-1733 . . 457
Illustrations of recorded brutalities in
1685 458
Victims of the law .... 459
The heroic death of Daniel MacMichael 459
Dispatch of William Adam, and an
execution at Paisley . . . 460
The Lochenkit martyrs . . .461
Death of Charles n., 6th February
1685 462
James vii. proclaimed King . . 463
Fresh vintage of blood . . . 464
March of prisoners to 'The Whigs'
Vaults,' Dunnottnr . . . 465
Horrors wellnigh incredible . . 466
Shooting of Bell and others, February
1685 .167
Shooting of William Smith . . 468
Trial and doom of Thomas Ritchart . 469
The Ingliston tragedy . . . 470
Drummond's commission . . . 470
Claverhouse in the chase .
John Brown — the Christian carrier
Widow Brown's account of the murder
on May Day ....
The Wigtown martyrdom, 2nd May
1685
Appeals to the Privy Council
Two sacrifices al the stake
The Mauchline tragedy, 6th May
1685
Westerhall and Claverhouse execute
Hislop .....
Martyrdoms unrecorded by Wodrow
Brigadier Graham chases Renwick
Three Polmadie victims
Betrayal of James Kirko .
William, first Duke of Queensberry
16371695 ....
The rival Parliament of Blackgannoch
Protestation at Sanquhar .
The Renwickites refuse to join Argyll
Argyll sets sail, 2nd May 1685 .
The fiery cross fails .
Capture and execution of Argyll 488-489
FACE
471
472
473
474
475
476
477
478
479
480
48 1
482
483
484
485
486
487
488
XVI
THE COVENANTERS
Fate of Monmouth and Rumbold
Execution of Archer ....
Ear-lopping; death of General Dalyell;
' The White Flag of the Devil '
The MacLellans of Barmagechan
Captain John Nisbet hanged
Queensberry under a shade
Shooting of Steel, 20th December 16S6
The King's veiled projects
Deposition of Archbishop Cairncro.ss
Renwick interviews Peden
Death of Peden ....
An Informatory Vindication
I'AGK
PAGE
490
Growth of Romanism
.
503
491
Effects of the royal Irenicon
504
Prosecution of Gilbert Burnet
505
492
The grand oblation .
506
493
Capture of Renwick, ist February
494
1688 ....
506
496
Trial of Renwick
507
497
Renwick in prison
508
498
Renwick on the scaffold
509
499
Appreciation of Renwick .
Sio
500
Thomas Carlyle on Renwick
5"
501
The last martyr — George Wood
(July
502
16S8?) ....
.
512
CHAPTER XXXI
THE REVOLUTION— 1688-1690
PAGE
A tottering throne . . . -513
Declaration by ^Villiam of Orange,
October 1 688 . . . .514
The Society-men testify against
Jacobites and Dutch . . • S'S
Representative conventions . -516
Melee at Holy rood . . . -517
Society-men and rabbling . . .518
Liberation of Alexander Gordon . 519
Covenant subscribed at Lesmahagow 520
Convention of Scots Estates, 14th
March 1689 521
Viscount Dundee's intrigues and ex-
ploits ...... 522
Proclamation of William and Mary . 523
Origin of the Cameronian regiment . 524
King William repudiates the persecut-
ing clause ..... 525
Settlement of the Church . . . 525
The Pass of Killiecrankie . . . 526
PAGE
Mackay's position . . . -527
The fall of Dundee .... 528
Flight of Mackay .... 529
Estimate of Dundee .... 530
'The Sacred Band' at Dunkeld . 531
Proclamations in 1689 . . -532
The surprising restraint of Presby-
terians 533
Fate of the hierarchy . . . 534
The deadness of the Church . . 535
'The Club' 536
Act ratifying confession and settling
Presbyterian Church government . 537
Abolition of patronage . . -538
Petition of the persecuted . . . 539
The General Assembly meets, i6tli
October 1690 . . . .540
Purpose of the Covenants . . .541
Opinions of Burns, Froude, and
Carlyle 54 '"542
APPENDICES
XVll
APPENDICES
I. Literary Men and their Works
from 1625 till 1690 . . 543
II. Epitaphs on the Monuments of
some of the most famous of
the Martyrs . . -55°
III. The United Societies -557
IV.
The Cess 559
V.
The Wodrow MSS. . . .560
VI.
Acts of Parliament repealed in
1906 560
VII.
Ordination in the Church of
Scotland . . - .564
Index .
56s
ERRATA
Vol. i. p. 481, 1. 38,>r 'Rep. ix.' read ' Rep. xi.'
„ p. 496, 1. 34, y&y 'laeVearf ' Jac'
Vol. ii. p. 501, 1. II, for 'churchyard' read 'cemetery.'
„ p. 513, 1. 14, delete ' T^e.'
„ p. 550, 1. 19, afler ' Societies ' read ' Hugh Clark.'
VOL. II.
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
James, Marquis of Montrose ...... Frontispiece
Vignette, The Netherbow Port ...... Tiikpage
The Covenants subscribed by King Charles II. in 1650, and
Kirk Session Record of Kirkinner Parish . . . Facingpage 2
Royalist and Covenanting Leaders .... ,< 64
John Graham of Claverhouse — Viscount Dundee. . . „ 122
From the Portrait in Melville House. By the permission of
Mrs. Milbank.
The Pentland Rising — From Dalry to Rullion Green . „ 192
The Grassmarket, Edinburgh, and Monuments of Martyrs . „ 220
Portrait of Balfour of Kinloch — 'Burly' ... „ 252
By the permission of Charles Pearson, Esq., Alloa.
Effigy of Archbishop Sharp in the Parish Church of St.
Andrews ........ » 288
Portraits of Claverhouse, Leven, and Balfour . . „ 298
Battle of Bothwell Bridge ..... ,, 3'°
From an Engraving of an old Picture in possession of the Duke
of Buccleuch.
Memorable Scenes and Places of Burial ... „ 35°
Declaration that the Covenant was Illegal ... „ 400
Enterkin Pa.ss ....... „ 43°
From a Photograph by the Author.
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Martyrs' Graves in St. John's Churchyard, Dalry
From a Photograph by the Author.
An Act against Conventicle-Preachers, etc.
Monuments of the Martyrs ....
Peden's Grave and other Historic Spots
Letter from James Renwick ....
Preserved in the New College Library, Edinburgh.
Battlefield of Killiecrankie ..... „ 526
From a Photograph by Mr. G. W. Wilson, Aberdeen.
XIX
itigpage
448
>f
453
i>
470
91
500
)]
Sio
HISTORY OF THE COVENANTERS
CHAPTER XVIII
Scotland's three rulers — church, Charles, and cromwell
Charles arrived at Speymouth on the 23rd June 1650. Before he King Charles
was permitted to place a foot on Scottish soil he was required to swear covenant,
and subscribe both Covenants. He wished to subscribe with reserva- 23rd June
1650.
tions, and stru^crled hard to be freed from the clause which bound
him to give legal sanction to the Presbyterian system in both England
and Ireland whenever he ascended the southern throne. His opposi-
tion gave rise to angry discussions on Sabbath morning before sermon.
The Commissioners were inexorable. At length Charles appeared to
surrender, and accepted the bitter terms. He vowed to be a Kirk-man.
This compliance grieved John Livingstone, the preacher and exhorter
that day, and he craved delay because he realised the King's hypo-
crisy in accepting the Covenants 'without any evidence of any reall
change in his heart, and without forsaking former principles, counsells,
and company.' ' Livingstone was overruled and Charles was permitted
to perjure himself, thus bringing guilt, according to Livingstone, on
'the Church and realm.' 'Our sin was more than his,' confessed
Jaffray.^ In Parliament, then sitting in Edinburgh, two of the Com-
missioners, ' Brodie and Libertone, made a full relation of all ther
negotiation with his Maiestie ; they producit the couenant, withe the
Churche explanation, subscriued with the Kinge's hand, as also the
Concessions subscriued by his Maiestie.' ^
* 'Livingstone's Account,' Select Biog., i. 183 ; Rec. Com. Gen. Assent., ii. 437.
2 Diayy, 55.
' 1st July 1650 : Balfour, Annals, iv. 67. For Breda propositions, cf. deed in C!ar. State
Pap. (June-September 1650), 55, 56, 57 (Bodleian Library). King Charles ii. subscribed the
VOL. n. A
THE COVENANTERS
Rejoicings
on the
arrival of
Charles n.
Progress of
Charles.
Official deputations of clergy and Parliament-men soon arrived to
welcome Charles. The people, ignorant of the deceit practised upon
them, were excited with joy at the news of the coming of their Prince.
Edinburgh, in particular, was riotous with enthusiasm expressed by
crackling bonfires, clanging bells, blaring trumpets, yelling dancers,
and jovial kail-wives.^ Contrary to the orders of Parliament, Charles
had brought with him a retinue of Malignants, who were compelled
to hive off and seek safety abroad. Only a select coterie, including
Buckingham, Wentworth, Wilmot, Sir Edward Walker, Chiffinch,
was allowed to remain. The following Scots were forbidden to
accompany Charles until they had given satisfaction to Church and
State : Hamilton, Lauderdale, Seaforth, Callendar, Forth, Dumfries,
St. Clair, Napier, Sir Robert Dalziel, Thomas Dalyell of Binns,
Lockhart, Charteris of Amisfield, Monro, and Cochrane, This rigour
was long remembered and repaid with usury by these political convicts
when the tables were turned in 1660.
Charles had entered into a tutelage which he little anticipated. His
progress to Falkland Palace, of evil memory, by way of Aberdeen,
Dunnottar, Kinnaird, St. Andrews, was officially appointed. In
Aberdeen he passed under the uplifted arm of Montrose, but there is
no record that the heartless opportunist felt any qualms at the gruesome
sight. He reached Falkland on 5th July. One of his first acts was
personally to instruct the Lyon-King as to a design for new colours
for the Life Guards. The motto selected was significant : ' Covenant,
Oath and Covenants more than once. First, on 26th March (O.S. 5th April) 1650 at Breda, he
subscribed the original terms of the Oath. On 23rd June he subscribed both Covenants and
the terms of the Declaration changed to include the words, ' Acts of Parliament, Bills or
Ordinances, past or to be past.' The deed was signed 'aboard the Skiiiain of Amsterdam
lying at anchor at the mouth of Spay, Sabboth, 23 Junii 1650,' according to John Livingstone
{Rec. Com. Gen. Assctii., ii. 368, 370, 382, 392, 403, 438). The Covenants, with the Declara-
tion, as signed by Charles — the deed which is preserved in the Bodleian Library {Clarendon
MSS., 40 f. 80) — shows the Oath amended on the margin and signeted by Charles (cf. photo-
graphic facsimile in this volume facing page 2), so that I conclude that it was signed after 20th
May 1650, and in all likelihood on the 23rd June. It is endorsed by Archibald Johnston,
Clerk-Register, and Andrew Ker, Clerk of the Assembly. It was read in Parliament on ist July
1650 {Aci. Pari. Scot., VI. ii. jgS), and Johnston was ordered to preserve it. Eleven days later
it was also produced in the General Assembly. Cf. Appendix iv. vol. i.
' Nicoll, 16, 17.
^
V^^».*'.<<</A/«.-..^ ■
- ,:. K y. ....
, ..,..yc,^.../,./., ,, ■
■ m.
hi.:.
A^
i hi; L'ovenaiils signed by Charles Ii. at Speyiiioutii
p'-'^'-
\^W"
I'ayc- ol U
.; KiiL S,
■ ■ |i Jl
Ki , 1,1.
ip
(."^y)
■"-*^ "-"- -*'^ fj^ lUS.^l-^-f
i
Jo, L^f^t Y o^u 1.'-^ ,
^r^-.
,5?
I Kukinner, \\ii,lu\\ii (17111, giving .111 Accuuiu o( lliu Mailjidoii. of
Margaret Lauchlison — one of the Wigtown Martyrs
SCOTLAND'S THREE RULERS 3
For Religion, King and Kingdomes.' Charles was fast developing
into a polished dissimulator.
Cromwell had already been recalled from Ireland, where he had Cromweii
.. _^,,,. . invades Scot-
constituted himself the well-paid minister oi Gods justice to avenge i^n^, 22nd
the massacres of the saints in 1641, and had completely subjugated J^'y-
that miserable isle.^ The English Parliament, rightly interpreting
all these sinister movements in the north to be a menace, determined
to strike the first blow and to invade Scotland.^ General Fairfax had
conscientious scruples regarding this unconstitutional procedure, and
declined the duty of leading the army. Cromwell, having consulted
the Psalms, found the necessary authority to take command in the
hope that the Lord would ' enable this poor worm and weak servant
to do His will.'
Cromwell crossed the Tweed on 22nd July with a force of 10,500
foot and 5500 horse. A naval squadron supported him along the
coast.^ In ordinary circumstances this was no formidable host for
Scotland to oppose with the 20,000 regulars and levies who assembled
on the Links of Leith under David Leslie, Cromwell's comrade at,
and the hero of, Marston Moor. Cromwell's merciless massacres in
Ireland had conferred on him a notoriety as fearful as the plague. It
was Leslie's safest plan to avoid the terrible Ironsides. The Scots
soon transformed into wastes those districts through which the invaders
might pass, thus making local victualling impossible. None capable
of bearing a weapon stayed to provoke a fight. The Covenanting Leslie's
host, however, wanted the strength and unity of former national armies, ""^"""'^
Before the campaign began, the purgation of the public services was
carried out, on the demand of the Assembly's Commission, and after-
wards of the Assembly, by the removal from the army ' of all men of a
scandalous conversatione, and of a questionable integrity and affectione
in the cause of God.' ■* This mistaken policy weakened the army of
• His salary was ;{;45,ooo : Cal. State Pap. (Charles II.), i. 45.
2 On 31st July 1650 the English Council ordered the demolition of the statues of James
and Charles, and the publication of this inscription: ' Exit Tyrannus Regum ultimus anno
primo restilutae libertatis Angliae, 1648' ; ibid., ii. 261. ^ Whitelocke, Memoirs, i. 450-71.
* Peterkin, 620. It is said 5000 men were cast out : Cal. State Pap., ii. 324.
host.
Malignants
4 THE COVENANTERS
defence in numbers, fighting power, and experience — many capable
ofiicers and privates being set aside. Probably Whitelocke was re-
cording incredible gossip when he mentioned that some ministers in
their prayers said, that ' if God did not deliver them from the Sectaries
He would not be their God any longer.' '
Round the Capital Leslie made strenuous exertions to oppose
Cromwell. A great entrenchment, strengthened with redoubts, was
cut from the foot of the Canongate to the Port of Leith, and behind
it encamped the Scots, from Broughton village to St. Leonard's Craigs.
Purging out The Lammas floods befriended the Scots. The Covenanters have
often been severely criticised for their intolerant suppression of the
Malignant faction at this juncture. But extant records prove that
Scotland was being threatened with a repetition of that moral decadence
which a hundred years before sorely exercised Queen Mary and ruined
the Church. The nobility, gentry, and clergy included many profligate
members. The ' Old Man ' was much in evidence. The advent of
Charles ii. alone was needed to popularise wickedness in Royalist
society, and bring about that recrudescence of vice justly feared by
the Covenanters. As yet the ' gracious ' Lauderdale was not ' swollen
with gluttony and brutalised with vice ' ; ^ nor was young Rothes — ' un-
happily made for drunkenness,' as Burnet wrote — who afterwards was
both and worse, indulging that sin they blamed his stricter father for :
' In the old cause your father led the van,
But you bring up the rear with Lady Ann.'^
The gallant soldier Nathaniel Gordon had already been processed
for adultery, and the similar scandals of Chancellor Loudoun and
Ludovick Lindsay, Earl of Crawford, were coming into court.*
The wanton imitators of the Merry Monarch had many precursors
and imitators, over whose unsavoury lives it might be better to draw
a veil. It is to the national credit that there survived some honest
and fearless men who were willing to tear the blister from the front
' Memoirs, i. 465. ''■ Pref. Lauderdale Papers. ^ Ballad, Mitchers Ghost.
■■^Gordon, Keith, 150, 426 ; Lament, Diary, 38, 130 ; Scot, Staggering State, 24.
SCOTLAND'S THREE RULERS 5
of virtue/ The Commission of Assembly, which was very represen-
tative, influential, and large, busied itself putting the stringent Acts
against Engagers into operation in the autumn. In the visitation of
lax Presbyteries they found and deposed many ministers and teachers
guilty of vices incompatible with their offices, as well as doubtful
characters whose chief fault seems to have been preference for the
Royalist policy." The growing lewdness of the Carolan age had even Lewdness in
crept into manses and destroyed the usefulness of preachers, who ^ "°
incurred deposition for inefficiency, drunkenness, and immorality.
With few exceptions the deposed Malignants were of no distinction.
More notable were : Henry Guthry, minister of Stirling, who had
been a member of the High Commission in 1634, was a noisy zealot
in the Assembly, and survived to become Bishop of Dunkeld after
the Restoration ; Andrew Ramsay, the sturdy opponent of Laud's
Liturgy, now senile and dotard, vented silly views regarding Pres-
bytery and law ; William Colvin, also an Edinburgh minister, was as
loquacious a wire-puller in the Assembly as he was sly in concealing
his Royalist leanings.^ Scandalous facts like these grieved earnest
men such as George Gillespie, who on 15th December 1648, on his
death-bed, gave a testimony declaring the Malignant party to be ' the
seed of the Serpent.' *
' Qi. postea. Chapter xxi. - Rec. Com. Gen. Assent., ii. 125. ' Peterkin, 592.
■* On 14th April 1650 the Earl of Buchan 'did stand up in his daske,' in Auchterhouse
Church, confessed his sin of Engaging, held up his hand, swore to the Covenant, and sub-
scribed it. In the same place fifteen years afterwards his widow, Marjory Ramsay, Countess
of Buchan, confessed the sin of immorality with the parish minister, James Campbell, who
also had to sit on the repentance pillar, December 1665 {Kirk-Sess. Rec. ; Inglis, Annals of
Auchterhouse, 108, 131, 132). 'At Bottarie, 15 Martii 1648, The Lady Altar, Jean Gordon,'
was accused 'of ane barne in adulterie to Nathaniel Gordon, and also of ane uther bairne in
fornication with Captain Mortimer.' 'May 21, 1651, Elspeth Crukshanks, Botarie, confessed
adultery with Ludovick Lindsay, Earl of Crawfurd ' {Pres. Rec. Strathbogie ; J. F. S. Gordon,
Keith, 150, 426). Patrick Graham of Inchbrakie, the /it/us Achates of Montrose, an old man
in 1678, knelt in the church of Auchterarder, confessing immorality, gave money to the poor
and to Christian prisoners in Turkey, and on the bishop's recommendation was absolved
(Sess. Rec. of Auchterarder, anno 1678). ' Patrick Lesley, Lord of Londors, was never married,
but had aboue 67 basse children ' (Balfour, Annals, 12th August 1649, iii. 423). ' 1651, Jun.
. . . The Commission of the kirk satt at Stirling, att which tyme Chancelour Campbell
(Loudoun) was brought up before them and challenged for adulterie with ane Major Jhonston's
wife, surnamed Lindsay. This Jhonston was he that went in shortlie before to Cromwell, and
reveilled to him the purpose of a pairtie of our armie that went forth to beat up his quarters '
(Lament, Diary, 31).
pious Declara
tions.
6 THE COVENANTERS
If purgation led to the disintegration of the Covenanted host in
Scotland, as has been often asserted, Cromwell found it to be a
method of selection of the fittest which rendered his Ironsides both
stable and invincible.
On his northward march Cromwell, ' a God-intoxicated man,' com-
posed and dispatched various Declarations, ' To all that are saints
Cromwell's and Partakers of the Faith of God's Elect in Scotland,' and, 'To the
People in Scotland,' repudiating the false accusations by Scottish
enemies, that the Sectaries were brutal monsters, further asserting
that in Charles ii. there was no salvation possible, and assuring
them that the English had come to fight for the substance of the
Covenant.* Replies and counter- replies passed to and fro." This
correspondence called forth the oft-quoted letter of Cromwell, dated
Musselburgh, 3rd August 1650, in which he accused the Scottish
leaders of having ' a carnal confidence upon misunderstood and
misapplied precepts, which may be called spiritual drunkenness.'
This insobriety deluded them with the idea that their policy was
established 'upon the Word of God.' He inquired, 'Is it therefore
infallibly agreeable to the Word of God, all that you say ? I
beseech you, in the bowels of Christ, think it possible you may be
mistaken. . , . There may be a Covenant made with Death and
Hell : I will not say yours was so.'^
Two days later the ' scornful men ' of the Covenant answered the
' blasphemer ' — such many styled Cromwell — with an emphatic dis-
claimer of Malignancy, which but made matters worse. Some
influential members of the extreme section of the Covenanters —
Colonels Ker, Strachan, and others — were not averse to contemplating
an alliance with the Cromwellians in the event of the King not
accepting their demands. But the unforeseen action of the unscrupu-
lous Sovereign in consenting to promote the Covenants was a
disappointment to Cromwell and to these concordant friends in the
opposing camp.
' Aldis, List, 1407, Declaration of the Army upon tJieir March, etc,
'^ Reply 1431 ; other Replies, 1410, 141 1, 1417, 1428, 1429.
' Cromwell, Letter cxxxvi.
SCOTLAND'S THREE RULERS 7
Cromwell came into contact with Leslie's insuperable barrier on Skirmishes
29th July, and the Scots had as little difficulty in rolling back his burgh.
weary and wet troops to their fortified camp at Musselburgh as they
in turn repulsed the assault on it two days later.^ The King, on the
invitation of the Earl of Eglinton, came from Stirling to Leith, where
he was received with an enthusiasm which disconcerted the Govern-
ment. They permitted him to watch the first conflict from the Castle,
but were uneasy until he had left the lines. The extremists believed
his presence would blight the holy army.^ He was forced to retire
to Dunfermline to prevent intrigues. Meantime the Committee of
Purging was busy weeding out eighty officers and three thousand of
the rank and file who were tainted with Malignancy and other
offences distasteful to Covenanting purists — a handful of the elect
being deemed more invincible than a legion of those lost by un-
pardonable sin.
Cromwell, having retired to Dunbar to replenish his commissariat, Cromweii
returned to Musselburgh, whence he made a wide flank movement to Dunbar.
the west, as he intended to assault Leslie to the rear of his own lines.
He camped upon the Braid Hills and watched Leslie from Blackford
Hill. Leslie would not be tempted to a general engagement.
A strategist, and knowing the ground well, Leslie marched the Scots
round to the slopes above Corstorphine, which now look down on
green meadows, then marshy and impassable with water. Cromwell
could not dislodge his wily opponent ; the way to Queensferry and
to the roadstead in the Forth was effectually barred ; and there was
no alternative to a retreat, more especially since disease was spreading
in the English ranks. Cromwell made for Dunbar and arrived there
on 1st September, closely chased by Leslie, who got between him and
the Borders.
The Scottish army was miserably rent by factious parties, and Dissensions
military discipline had suffered severely in consequence of the loss covenanters.
of unity caused by the constant purging process and the growth of
' Balfour, iv. 87 ; Douglas, Croinwcirs Scotch Campaigns, 37-52.
' Hist. MSS. Com. Rep., xi., App. vi. 132, No. 393 {Hamilton MSS.) ; Row, Blair, 235.
8 THE COVENANTERS
divisive views of the situation. Before John Livingstone took leave
of his Sovereign he adjured him to divert the shock of the EngHsh
invasion by making a personal declaration that, while maintaining
his title to the English Crown, he would not prosecute it with the
sword until political confusions had vanished. Not relishing the
proposal, Charles replied to his wise adviser, 'he hoped I would
not wish him to sell his father's blood.' ^ This snub convinced the
preacher that he was not 'called to meddle in any publick state
matters.' The Covenanters were not unanimous in their idea of
this demand. Cromwell knew this, and vainly hoped to win over
the extremists to his side. He had formerly insisted on the passing
of an Act of Classes, and subsequently tried to convince the Presby-
terians that to trust another Malignant ruler was a fatal error. The
leaders in the Church and Estates, especially in the former, were as
determined to exact from Charles some safeguarding Declaration
as he was obstinate in giving any satisfaction as to his intentions.
Robert Douglas, like Livingstone, in a private interview with
Charles, failed to convince him of the necessity for declaring his
views. They were also resolved not to brook the well-timed taunt
of Cromwell as to their inconsistency in professing the Covenants
at the same time that they drew the sword in the Malignant cause.
The West This is not to be wondered at. The demands of the Covenanters,
tion, iTth" ^^^° bitterly stigmatised the parents of King Charles as murderers
August 1650. and idolaters, were as humiliating and insulting as they could possibly
be. Nevertheless Charles stooped to agree to them, merely stipu-
lating that the harsh terms of the Declaration should be altered.
The Protesters refused to do this after obtaining the King's signature.'
He was further subdued by a resolution of the Church and of the
Estates, subscribed at the West Kirk, Edinburgh, on the 13th August,
for the purpose of satisfying the scruples of some officers, wherein it
was declared that the Kirk and Kingdom would only fight for the
settled Cause of the Covenant ; disclaimed the sins of the Royal
House; and would not own the King or his interest, unless he
' Select Biog., i. 185. - Wodrow, i. 47.
SCOTLAND'S THREE RULERS 9
subordinated himself to God, prosecuted their holy aims in a holy
manner, and repudiated the enemies of the Covenant.'
Robert Douglas, who had assented to this Act providing a
private solace to the sensitive commanders of the Covenanters, was
chagrined to learn that General Leslie had immediately forwarded
the Resolution to Cromwell, with the request that he should read it
to his officers.- This was duly done. Cromwell sent back a masterly,
scathing reply, wherein he disclaimed all intention to interfere with the Cromwell's
religion of the Scots, and accused the Scots of inconsistency in con- '^'^'='*"""-
demning Malignancy, while they used the Covenant in order to impose
a Malignant King upon England, who was actually then employing
a Popish army to fight for him ; nor could he see how any ' Godly
Interest' could centre in such a man as Charles was, or make the
English army enemies of the Presbyterians. Those Covenanters
who agreed with Cromwell were in a minority and unable to coalesce
with him. Doubtless their views were right, and they soon saw the
error of trusting a ruler who never meant to keep his vows.^
Cromwell was answered. Charles was terrified. He was afraid
of being deserted by the army. He was practically a prisoner under
the surveillance of Lord Lome, captain of the Foot Guards, nor could
he outwit, with lies and all, the astute Argyll —
' That Hylander whose conscience and whose eyes
Play handy-dandy with deceit and lyes.'*
As an easy way out of his dilemma and present troubles Charles Declaration at
signed the Declaration at Dunfermline on i6th August. Its seven °""^"'"''"^'
heads bore that Charles humbled himself for his father's opposition
to the ' Worke of God ' and to the Covenants, and for the idolatry,
especially of his mother, in the royal household ; acknowledged that
he had no crooked design in signing the Covenant and would have
no friends except Covenanters ; annulled the Irish Treaty ; would
> Balfour, iv. 95. 2 Wodrow, i. 48.
^ Leslie's letter is printed in Cromwell, Letters (cxxxvi.), ii. 171. Cromwell's reply is
Letter cxxxvii. For Cromwell's letter written at Pentland Hills, cf. Clar. State Pap. (June-
Sept., 1650), 171 (Bodleian Library).
* Scot. Hist. Misc., ii. 287 ; Hist. Ma?t. Com. Rep., xi., App. vi. 132.
VOL. n. B
lo THE COVENANTERS
encourage trading by sea ; would promote the Covenant in England
and Ireland ; would pass an act of oblivion for all except obstructors
of the Reformation, traitors, and regicides ; and would advise the
well-affected English to help the Covenanters in preference to the
Sectaries. Patrick Gillespie, minister in Glasgow, who placed the
Deception by pen in the hand of Charles to subscribe the document, said to him
Charles.
' that if he was not satisfied in his soul and conscience, beyond all
hesitation, of the righteousness of the subscription, he was so far from
over-driving him to ruin upon that, that as he obtested him, yea he
charged him, in his Master's name and in the name of those who sent
him, not to subscribe this declaration, no, not for the three kingdoms.'
' Mr. Gillespie,' replied the King, ' Mr. Gillespie, I am satisfied with
the Declaration, and therefore will subscribe it.'* The unprincipled
deceiver was but juggling with sacred things. With 'good and true
natural inclinations to the Catholic faith,' Charles had already solicited
Papal help, and at this very juncture, through the Dean of Tuam, he
assured Ormond that he adhered to the Irish Peace: 'However I
am forced by the necessity of my affairs to appear otherwise, yet that
I am a true child of the Church of England, and still remain firm unto
my first principles. Mr. King, I am a true Cavalier.'^ He wrote
to Nicholas from Perth on 3rd September : ' Nothing could have con-
firmed me more to the Church of England than being here seeing
their hypocrisy.' How this discreditable artifice of a perfidious time-
server could salve the consciences of the military champions of the
Covenant it is hard to understand. Argyll, however, well aware of
the hollowness of the King's professions, offered to him the con-
soling suggestion that his agreement was only a temporary expedient
'to please these madmen.'^ Reaching the coast at Dunbar,
Cromwell saw his ' poor, shattered, hungry, discouraged army ' of
1 1,000 men in a trap. Leslie, almost simultaneously on Sabbath, ist
September, appeared with 23,000 men on the Dun, an eminence 600
feet high, one mile south from Dunbar, whose very name describes a
' A. Shields, A Hind Let Loose, T},. 2 Gardiner, Hist, of Commonwealth, i. 268, 279.
' Cal. State Pap. {Dam.), ii. 325, 350.
SCOTLAND'S THREE RULERS ii
military 'coign of vantage.' On the west it overlooks the course of
the Broxburn, which had cut a deep and natural fosse 40 feet in
depth and breadth, protecting the left declivity of the position. The
front of the Dun is a steep, grassy slope with a gradient of 500 feet
in half a mile facing the sea.
The peninsula of Dunbar, on which the English had pitched their Cromweii in
tents, extends 'about a mile from sea to sea' — from Belhaven Bay to ^^'n,^^^
Broxmouth House. ^ Eight miles further east Leslie had posted a
force sufficient to guard a deep ravine called Peaths Dean, at
Cockburnspath, and thus doubly barred the Berwick Road into
England. In the enemy's land Cromwell's only friend was the sea.
' Our condition was made very sad,' he wrote to Ireton, 'the Enemy
greatly insulted and menaced us.' He might fortify the town and
wait till relief came, or ship his foot and cut through with his sabres.
But he had not transports enough to carry all his infantry. Leslie
was sure he would attempt a massed cavalry charge. Indeed, 'the
Scots boasted that they had Cromwell in a worse pound than the
King had had Essex in Cornwall,"'^ and that his capture was inevit-
able.^ Cromwell realised his peril, and, to inspire courage, openly
lightlied it. On Monday he wrote anxiously, marking on the letter
' Haste, Haste,' to Haselrig from the battlefield : ' We are upon an
Engagement very difficult. The Enemy hath blocked up our way
at the Pass of Copperspath, through which we cannot get without
almost a miracle. He lieth so upon the Hills that we know not how
to come that way without great difficulty ; and our lying here daily
consumeth our men, who fall sick beyond imagination.'* One can also
gather from this letter that Cromwell intended to sit tight until
Haselrig approached with reinforcements from Newcastle, which
Cromwell had demanded and the Government had ordered.'^ In
his account sent to the English Parliament Cromwell acknowledged
that the Lord had ' reduced our Army into such straits that room
was only left for Believing.'"
' Cromwell, Letter cxl. 2 pjrth, Cromwell., 281.
' Act. Pari. Scot., Vl. ii. 808. * Letter cxxxix.
' Cal. State Pap., ii. 328. « Act. Pari. Scot., vi. ii. 808.
12
THE COVENANTERS
Leslie's
position at
Dunbar, 2nd
September.
As the Scots faced the foe they proceeded with the ruinous purga-
tion.^ Their strength was further undermined by Royalist traitors, who
kept Cromwell informed of Leslie's designs." Leslie had the advantage
of what counsel the veteran Leven, who ran from Marston Moor, could
give him before he fled again ; and also the disadvantage of having
to obey that advisory Council of War which ruined Baillie at Kilsyth.
The fatal blunder at Kilsyth of moving to a less secure position in
front of the foe was perpetrated again. For this tactical mistake
the clergy have been wrongly blamed. The Protesters with reason
repudiated the libel. ^ Cromwell him.self testified that the clergy
elected to fight, but the chief officers desired that he should escape,
' though it were by a golden bridge.' ■*
On Monday, 'toward the evening,' when Cromwell was praying
for deliverance out of his dilemma, the Scottish Horse were seen to
descend from the Dun ; the foot and guns followed, to. extend east
and to take up new positions, behind Little Pinkerton and nearer to
the highway to Berwick. Cromwell marked this move to bar his
road south. The fields in which the cavalry were picketed were
yellow with the ripened corn. Leslie's object was to gain a better
stand for threatening the unfinished embarkation, and for repelling
the dash of the Ironsides. Besides, for days Leslie had been acting
with the arrogance of a swaggerer, rather than the caution of a
strategist.^ If Leslie's scouts had not been inefficient and untrust-
worthy, he would not thus have acted on the mistaken belief that
Cromwell had crippled his force by shipping those guns which
next morning thundered out death over the Broxburn into his left
' That some incorrigible scamps were still left in the army is proved by the report of
Haselrig on the Scots prisoners captured at Dunbar, whom he declared to be ' unruly,
sluttish, and nasty'; 'they acted rather like beasts than men'; and some even murdered
others for their money or clothes': Haselrig, Letter, 31st October 1650, quoted by Taylor,
Pictorial Hist, of Scot., ii. 978. One of Cromwell's spies was Mein, son to the staunch
Anti-liturgists, John Mein and Barbara Hamilton — the 'Jenny Geddes' of tradition. The
upright old Covenanter got his son apprehended. He was condemned to the gallows, but
reprieved by Charles : Balfour, iv. 297, 299. 'Old Jlione Meane' and his wife died in 1654 :
Lamont, Chron., <yj. " Balfour, iv. 97.
' M'Crie, Sketches, ii. 43 note. * Letter cxlii.
' Act. Pari. Scot., vi. ii. SoS ; Cromwell, Letter cxlii.
SCOTLAND'S THREE RULERS 13
wing. Tradition maintains that when Cromwell saw the unexpected
turn of good fortune in that fatal descent, he exclaimed : ' The Lord
hath delivered them into our hands.' That strategist instantly
perceived that his opponent, Leslie, could no longer deploy his left
wing for the ravine, nor yet could he re-form his right and centre on
the hillside, should they be successfully assailed and thrown into
disorder. Even with these unexpected advantages Cromwell had no
justification for his assurance.
Had Leslie, in command of double the force of his antagonist, Carelessness
kept on guard, and his officers been worthy of the name, the surprise °^^j^*
by Cromwell would have been ineffective. Cromwell's formations
along the stream indicated a mere defence. During the evening he
moved his divisions closer to the Broxburn, and was ready for
crossing at daybreak. General Lambert, at the head of six regiments
of horse, followed by three and a half regiments of foot, was ready to
attack. The night was blustering, rainy, and cloudy. The Scots,
shelterless, except those fortunate ones cowering behind the stocks
of corn, spent a miserable night. Although they were ordered to
stand to arms, sleep overpowered them. The cavalry off-saddled.
Major-General Holborn in the dead of night relaxed the discipline,
and permitted nearly all the musketeers to let their matches expire.
Thus practically disarmed, the men lay down to rest. Some of the
infantry officers slunk away to comfort and safety.^
Meantime the waning moon gave Cromwell light enough to The Battle
carry out his crafty plan under the leadership of Generals Lambert, ,,j September
Fleetwood, and Monck. Before dawn the half-awakened Scots were '^so-
attacked ere they well could form up for action. Soon the air was
rent with trumpet calls, musket shots, cannonading, noise of clanging
steel, and cries of' The Lord of Hosts,' answered by ' The Covenant,'
from the hillside. Pride's brigade of three regiments, supported by
Cromwell's regiment of horse, during the darkness crossed the stream
below Broxmouth House, and made a wide detour to reach the Scots
cavalry on the right wing. The main body of the English, headed
■ Walker, Hist. Disc, i8l.
Drove.'
14 THE COVENANTERS
by Lambert's horse, crossed below Brant's Mill, and were supported
by the great guns planted above it. A force of Scots, early astir to
cross the ford on the Berwick road, met the English and for an
hour gallantly contested the passage, at length being forced back.^
Lambert headed for the Scottish cavalry, but his first onset was
repulsed. The foot under Monck attacked the Scottish centre and
were driven back. The check was temporary. Pride's brigade
advanced to the attack, Monck's division rallied, and although one
Scottish foot regiment, under Campbell of Lawers, gallantly withstood
a flank attack from Lambert's infantry, until cavalry broke through
their ranks, the Scottish centre gave way.
' Dunbar The left wing of the Scots, flanked by a small body of horse, was
in too confined a position to act effectively, and was held in check by
the English artillery. The right wing of the Scots was thus driven
diagonally towards the left, the troopers, with all their colours flying,
riding pell-mell over their comrades. At this moment the red sun
rose out of the German Ocean. Cromwell was heard to exclaim :
' Now let God arise, and His enemies shall be scattered ' ; then a little
afterwards : ' I profess they run.' He recorded how the Scots were
'made as by the Lord of Hosts as stubble to their swords.'^ It
was a cowardly stampede. As many fugitives escaped unhurt as
Cromwell had men to chase them. The Lord General sounded the
rally, halted the victors, sang the hundred and seventeenth psalm,
and unleashed the rested chargers again upon the bloody pursuit. It
was the very shortest canticle which the avenger chose for praise,
not wishing to defraud the thirsty sabres of their due. The singing
veteran himself rode to the slaughter. Three thousand men fell and
ten thousand men were taken, along with nearly two hundred standards
and thirty guns.^ The most notable among the mortally wounded
was Winram, Lord Libbertoun, negotiator at Breda and Dunfermline.
A few colonels died at their posts. The craven generals. Council of
War, the entire cavalry, and the officers of the infantry fled and left
' Douglas, Cromtvell's Campaigns, 109 note. ' Letter cxl.
^ Alex. Jaffray, Diary, 163. Jaffray, Libbertoun, Gillespie, Waugh were taken prisoners.
SCOTLAND'S THREE RULERS 15
the rank and file to their fate. Cromwell asserted that only twenty
men and officers on his side were placed hors de combat. This
indicates the absence of hand-to-hand combats, and of any serious
defence by the Scots. An eye-witness declared that after the first
onset ' wee lost none, they giving themselv's cheap to the execution.''
The craven Leslie laid the blame of the disaster on the chicken-
hearted officers. He wrote to Argyll, 5th September : ' I tak God
to witness wee might have as easily beaten them as wee did James
Graham at Philipshauch, if the officers had stayed by theire troops
and regiments.'^
Cromwell released over five thousand wounded men, and marched duel fate of
nearly four thousand prisoners into England. These famished men, '=°'^P"^""*-
by hundreds, died of dysentery, contracted through the hardships of
the campaign, and the eating of raw vegetables in a garden at
Morpeth, where the prisoners were confined. In November only
fourteen hundred of them survived. Cromwell gave the Countess of
Winton a thousand 'in a gallantry.'^ The English Council of State
ordered that the sound prisoners should be deported to the planta-
tions of Virginia and New England, and to French military service,
and some kept for English salt-works.^ Few escaped from the
scourge of disease to enter upon their servitude. Cromwell triumph-
antly wrote to Lenthall, the Speaker : ' It would do you good to see
and hear our poor foot to go up and down making their boast of God
for one of the most signal mercies God hath done for England and
His people.'" Clarendon, on the other hand, noted the absence of
lamentation in Royalist society : ' So the King was glad of it, as the
greatest happiness that could befall him, in the loss of so strong a body
of his enemies.' Charles was even credited with falling on his knees
and thanking God for the victory. Rutherford and the Godly Party
also indulged in a pious joy because God had testified to His wrath.
Cromwell gave God the glory for having appeared at Dunbar ' to
the refreshment of His saints.' He speedily followed up his advan-
' 'A Brief Relation,' Terry, Leslie, 478. - Ancram and Lothian Correspondence, ii. 29S.
» Walker, Hist. Disc:, 181. ■" Ca/. State Pap., ii. 334, 346. ' Letter cxl.
i6 THE COVENANTERS
tage and captured Edinburgh and Leith, the Castle of Edinburgh,
Cromwell howevcr, holding out. Arriving at Edinburgh on Saturday, 7th
bur"h ''" September, Cromwell found that, while the military had converted
7th September. St. Giles' Church into a store for munitions of war, the city ministers
had sought safety in the Castle and deserted their pulpits. He
invited them to return to their duty. They not only refused, but also
sent to him an insolent reply, taunting him and the Sectaries with
persecuting the English clergy. Even John Livingstone refused to
meet Cromwell.^ Cromwell took the trouble personally to answer
their unfounded accusations." He severely reprimanded them for not
'yielding to the mind of God in the great day of His power and
visitation,' and pointed out their mistake in supposing that their
present policy would work out the blessed Reformation. Never had
the preachers received so well merited a castigation. Their craven
conduct makes a poor contrast beside that of Zachary Boyd, who
stayed to confront Cromwell in the Cathedral of Glasgow, a month
later. That bold rhymer improved the occasion in flouting the
Sectaries to their faces. The irate Ironsides would have pistolled
him on the spot had Cromwell not reserved the audacious railer for a
worse revenge — a compulsory hearing of Old Noll's own interminable
prayers.
If Cromwell could read the clerical mind he could also anticipate
the next royal move. From the battlefield he wrote in a prophetic
mood to Haselrig : ' Surely it's probable the Kirk has done their do.
I believe their King will set up upon his own score now ; wherein
he will find many friends.'^ Cromwell lost no time in seeking an
encounter with Leslie, who had raked together his runaways at
Stirling and occupied a position too strong for Cromwell to take.
Leslie's Leslie had more irritating opponents in his own camp. Colonels
troubles. Strachan and Gilbert Ker, the victors of Carbisdale and other fights
for the Covenant, the Gideons of the extreme party, the irreconcilable
malcontents at the West Kirk meeting, with other anti-Malignants,
publicly and rightly accused Leslie of losing the battle of Dunbar, and
' Select Biog.,\. i86. - Letters cxivii., cxlviii. ' Letter cxli.
SCOTLAND'S THREE RULERS 17
refused to serve under him, or Leven. It is painful to think that
after Worcester fight Charles should have made a similar charge of
cowardice and implied treachery against Leslie.' Leslie resigned his
commission and, following the example of Baillie, resumed it on the
entreaty of the Estates.
The Royalist party, including the King, resolved if possible to The PubUc
effect a conjunction of the diverse parties in the State and Church for
the good of religion and the safety of the kingdom, and this proposal
was discussed by the leaders of both Estates assembled in Stirling.
Opinions differed as to the wisdom of acquiescing in this proposal,
which afterwards was known as The Public Resolutions, and soon
there were two opposing parties, laymen and clerics associated, for
and against the proposal.
Harmony in the Scottish camp was now impossible. The
opponents of the new policy of enlisting all and sundry into the
Royalist ranks — Ker, Strachan, Chiesley, and others — were permitted
to go into south-west Scotland and there to raise an independent
command of untainted brethren in the valleys of Clyde, Ayr, and Nith.
Sir Edward Walker is the authority for the story that Strachan
wrote to Cromwell a letter, which was intercepted, assuring Cromwell
that if he would quit Scotland, Strachan ' would so use the matter as
that he should not fear any prejudice from this nation.' '"
This Godly Party assured themselves that God would strengthen
them to cope with the opponents of the Covenant without the aid of
foreign arms.
While these dissensions tore the army, the Commission of the James Guthrie
General Assembly also met in Stirling. The influence of James pjo^gs^ers
Guthrie, minister there, Patrick Gillespie, Johnston of Wariston,
Samuel Rutherford, and other opponents of Malignancy was para-
mount. The fruit of their labours was A Shorte Declaratio7ie and
Varninge to all the congregations, which was issued on 1 2th
September.* This document urged all parties to search for the
' Cal. State Pap., iii. xxi. ; iv. 2. - Hist. Disc, 189.
' Balfour, iv. 98 ; Row, Blair, 246 note.
VOL. II. C
i8 THE COVENANTERS
iniquities which had provoked God to visit Scotland with His wrath,
and summoned the King to mourn for the provocations of his guilty
father and himself, as well as to consider if his hypocritical acceptance
of the Covenant, in order to gain an earthly crown, was not another
sin depriving him of a heavenly crown. The ' honest party ' had not
done. This summons prefaced another document, entitled ' Causes
of a soleme public humiliatione vpone the defait of the Armey, to be
keepit throughout all the Congregations of the Kirk of Scotland,'
which, under thirteen heads, called on the kingdom to humble itself
because of national sin, the provocation of the King's House, the
home-coming of Malignants and the neglecting to expatriate them, the
crooked ways of some negotiators sent to Breda, ingratitude to God,
and the selfish policy of officials and officers in places of power and
trust. ^ These edicts, however, were not well received in many places.
Some ministers in Fife refused to publish the documents, and ■even
went the length of demanding the restoration to public employment
of such of their own parishioners as had satisfied the Church for the
sin of the Engagement.
Sir John Chiesley of Kerswell, speaking of these would-be
penitents, as he laid his hand significantly on his sword, said, ' I
would rather join with Cromwell than with them.'" This was the
voice of the ' honest party,' who preferred an alliance with the
Sectaries to government by indifferent Discovenanters, whom Argyll,
in his weak-kneed policy of moderation, was reintroducing into official
life, at least such as were personally friendly to himself.
The King During all this time Charles was treated with a courteous vigilance
usually reserved for suspects, and for useful recreation he was expected
to absorb, with the avidity of a proselyte, the Puritanical dogmatics he
was treated to. In this enforced novitiate the carnal youth tried to look
as grave as possible. Burnet testifies that Charles mortified his flesh,
' Balfour, A?i!ials, iv. 102. This document was the groundwork of Guthrie's famous
Catcses of God's IVrath, etc., published in 1653, the writing of which formed an item in his
indictment. During these interminable dissensions David Calderwood, the historian of the
Church, and a sufferer for Presbyterianism, died at Jedburgh in the seventy-fifth year of his
age, 29lh October 1650. '^ Cheisley or Chiesly : Walker, 187.
under su
veillance
SCOTLAND'S THREE RULERS 19
standing to hear prolix prayers and sitting to digest tedious sermons,
no less than six on one occasion. Few princes would brook this pain
for any crown. His guardians made him observe Sabbath within
doors and week-days free from dancing and card-playing. They gave
him no opportunity to write private letters. The sinless game of golf
he might play with sentinels in sight. No doubt these national school-
masters had good reason for stringency with one whose passions drove
him into vice and crime.' There was another peril. He had won the
hearts of the unthinking masses, who were scarce permitted to see
the youth, and therefore invested him with many imaginary virtues.
Marvel's description of him in after-years indicates his appearance : —
' Of a tall stature and a sable hue,
Much like the son of Kish the lofty Jew,
Ten years of need he suffered in exile.
And kept his father's asses all the while.'
These months of penance made an ineffaceable impression on the
young King's mind and confirmed him in his hatred of Presbyterianism.
When, after the battle of Worcester, Charles appeared in France,
Orleans told him that it was reported that he had gone back to
Scotland. Charles replied, ' I had rather have been hanged.' '
The Commission of the Assembly urged the Committee of Estates
to finish their half-done work of purging the King's House. The
Lyon- King was commanded to discharge the offending courtiers who
had been detected plotting for a Royalist rising. In vain had Charles
pleaded for the retention of some of his favourites, but even the
servile petition of Hamilton was rejected.^ The King, smarting
under these insults, and misled into the apprehension that the ' honest
party ' — the western army — under Strachan intended to seize and
hand him over to Cromwell to be made an unwilling martyr, had
completed a plan for escaping their toils. He arranged a secret
meeting with his Royalist supporters in Fife. He cherished the fond
dream that the raising of the royal banner and the mustering of the
' Airy, Charles II., 95. ^ Cal. State Pap., iv. 2.
^ Balfour, iv. 110 ; Cal. Stale Pap., ii. 331.
20 THE COVENANTERS
veterans of Montrose would create defection in the army of Leslie.
However, too many were in the secret, which the Government learned
from one of the plotters, probably Buckingham. The meeting was
'The Start,' countermanded. Charles, nevertheless, on the afternoon of Friday,
1650/"'" 4th October, accompanied by a few attendants, left Perth, as if on
hunting bent in the south, crossed the Tay to Inchyra, and rode
rapidly by Dudhope, Auchterhouse, and Cortachy to Clova, a distance
of forty-two miles. He entered a wretched hovel and threw himself
down to sleep on an old bolster laid on sedges and rushes.^ A
company of Highlanders — the army of his dreams — kept guard over
the weary and terrified monarch, until Colonel Montgomery and his
horse regiment surrounded the captive. They timed his return into
Perth after the hour of public worship and treated him to a special
private sermon,^ so that in his sin he might not defraud his soul of the
comforts of a Covenanter's sabbath.
The Committee of Estates, realising the peril they had been saved
from, met on loth October, and for the first time gave the King a say
in their councils. Next day he apologised for his credulity and his
escapade, 'as he was a Christian man.' This ignominious incident is
remembered under the name of 'The Start.'
The Forfar The Suppression of the armed Royalists in Angus and Athole was
r.u 'r\ , 1 not so easily effected. Leslie mustered a force to crush them. With
20th October 1
1650. no little diplomacy the leaders of the rising forwarded to Leslie from
Forfar a copy of their Bond, in which they pleaded for national unity,
and summoned all patriots to combine against the invaders. The
terms of the Bond are as follows : —
'The Northerne band and Othc of Engagement, sent by Midcltone to
L.-Generall Dauid Lesley, 26 of October, 1650.
' We wndersubscriuers, being tuoched with a deepe sence of the sade condition
this our naliue kingdome of Scotland is in, by a prewailling armey of sectaries,
quho hauing murthered our lait king, and ouerturned religione and gouuerniinent
in our nighboure kingdomcs of luigland and Ireland, hath invaded this kingdome,
and are in a way ... to reduce the quoU to a province. . . .
'Therfor, and for satisfactione to all quho are satisfiable, wee doe promisse
' Gardiner, Hist, of Commontvealth, i. 337. - Lialfour, iv. 113.
SCOTLAND'S THREE RULERS 21
and sweare, that wee shall manteine the trew religione, as it is established in
Scotland ; the couenant, leauge and couenant ; the Kings Maiesties persone,
prerogatiue, gratnes, and authoritie ; the preulidges of parliament and fredome of
the subiects,
So helpe ws God.
Sic subscribitur,
Huntley. Pat. Grhame.
Athole. Sr Geo. Monro.
Seaforth. Th. Mackenzie.
St. Clare. Jo. Gordon.
Jo. Mideltone. Wanderrosse.
W. Horrie, etc' ^
Middleton sent a covering letter explaining that the aim of the new
Engagers was simply union and the avoiding of bloodshed among
brother Scots.
The Commission of the Church, on the motion of James Guthrie,
resolved on Middleton's summary excommunication.-
Two days after the Bond was signed the King and the Committee Collapse of
of Estates published an 'Acte of Pardon and Indemnitie' to these °P"'^
i rising.
rebels on condition that they laid down their arms. This alteration
of the circumstances gave the King, Committee of Estates, and Com-
mission a reason for requesting Guthrie to stay the excommunication,
with which he was entrusted, but Guthrie was too much in earnest,
and laid the ban on Middleton in Stirling Church. On 4th November
Leslie received their submission at Strathbogie. The whole move-
ment was a crafty device to unify the forces of the Crown on a field
where the principle of patriotism was to be recognised as of first
importance in the crisis. In taking action, men were to consider that
patriotism took precedence of Covenanted religion. This was a
demand the least likely to appeal to Strachan and his unbending
Whiggamores. This party, which Carlyle styles 'the old VVhigga-
more Raid of 1648 under a new figure,' had already mustered over
four thousand men in the western shires under Colonels Strachan and whiggamore
Gilbert Ker. They held a conference at Dumfries, when Wariston ^°°^7rks" "'
gave them assistance in framing a policy and pronouncement antago-
' Balfour, iv. i2y. = Row, B/u//; 244.
22
THE COVENANTERS
The Remon-
strance— a
Western
Covenant,
17th October
1650.
Views of the
Remonstrants.
nistic to the new coalition.' Strachan had opened friendly correspond-
ence with Cromwell, who, after sending to the Committee of Estates
a firm letter stating that any blood further shed in defence of their
Malignant King would lie on their heads, on 9th October marched to
Glasgow, expecting a junction with the westland men." On 17th
October, the Dumfries manifesto was ready for presentation to the
Estates by Patrick Gillespie and John Stirling. It had the following
title : The Hzimble Remonstrance of the Gentlemen, Commanders
and Ministers, attending the Forces in the West. This extraordinary
document, prolix as all those visded by Wariston are, attributed the
Lord's wrath to —
(i) The admission of Charles to the Covenant without proof of
the reality of his professions.
(2) Provoking God by the hasty conclusion of the Treaty, after
the ' unstraight dealling ' of Charles stood disclosed, thus palliating his
dissimulation.
(3) The King's action in conjunction with the apostate Montrose
and other Malignants and Papists, in opposition to the work of God
and the Covenant.
(4) The unjust design of some to invade England to obtain booty
and to force a king upon an independent nation.
(5) Backsliding from the Covenant, neglecting to fill public offices
with Covenanters, and tolerating Malignants.
(6) The sins of covetousness, extortion, self-seeking, and trust in
the flesh instead of in God.^
' It closed,' wrote Baillie, ' with a solemn engadgement on all their
hearts (if God blessed their armies) to see all these things performed.' ^
The Remonstrants were careful to object to being classed with
Sectaries and Levellers, and demanded the putting away of the sins
' Tlie Remonstrant forces besieged and fired the house of Drunilanrig, wasting the lands
and taking away the crops and plenishing of the tenantry, in October 1650. In 1661 the Earl
of Quecnsberry pursued Wariston, Gilbert Ker, Stair, and other westland landlords with
Captain John Gordon, 'wha burnt the gaits,' Patrick Gillespie, John Nevay, and other
He was awarded ^2000 sterling by Parliament : Ramage, Drumlanrig and the
Act. Pari. Scof., vi. ii. 6371^ ; vii. 95. - Letter cl. ; Balfour, iv. 161.
ministers.
Douglaaes, 4''>52
^ Balfour, iv. 141
Peterkin, Records, 604 ; Row, Blair, 246.
' Letters, iii. 119.
SCOTLAND'S THREE RULERS 23
of the King and people before they would join the royal army. This
possibility of union, making these demands ' too low for his meridian,'
was the factor constraining Strachan to resign the command of the
Kirk regiment and to seek refuge with Cromwell. The fiery Patrick
Gillespie afterwards crystallised in a few words the demands of his
party, when in his ' pride of stomack ' he declared, ' that a hypocrite
ought not to reign over us ; that we ought to treat with Cromwell
and give him securitie not to trouble England with a king ; and, who
[soever] marred this treatie, the blood of the slaine in this quarrell
should be on their head.' ' There were extremer men than these, such
as the two Cants of Aberdeen, who were so patriotic as to maintain
that one crown was enough for any man.^
The Committee of Estates saw that the Remonstrance tended committee of
to undo their labours for unity, and after a fruitless conference with ^'''^'" '^°""
deran the
the Commission of Assembly on the subject, they, on 25th November, Remonstrance,
resolved to suppress it. Argyll, Balcarres, Lothian, and Lord
Advocate Nicolson were loud in disapproval of it as a divisive,
scandalous, and treasonable production, and of Hope, Guthrie, and
Gillespie as contrivers of the national mischiefs. Burleigh, Wariston,
and Sir James Hope as strongly defended it. However, the Re-
monstrance was voted to be scandalous, and Argyll and two others
were commissioned to ask the Assembly to condemn it and its
promoters, and to impeach Guthrie and Gillespie. The Commission
of the Assembly on 28th November, with some diplomacy, admitted
that the Remonstrance contained ' sad truths,' no doubt, ' apt to breid
division in Kirk and Kingdom,' but, since they loved the 'godlie
men ' who framed it, they would defer criticism until these ' worthy
gentlemen' had an opportunity, at another diet, to explain their
intentions.^ Guthrie, Patrick Gillespie, and others protested against
this finding.
Perth was now the seat of the Government, and Parliament met
there on 26th November 1650. The King, in his speech, acknow-
• BaWVie, LeiUrs, \n. 124. * Balfour, iv. 161.
' lit'd, iv. 174 ; Row, B/at'y, 24S.
24
THE COVENANTERS
The King's
vow.
Whiggamores
crushed.
ledged himself to be Sovereign of 'three Covenanted kingdoms,' and
that God had 'moved me to enter a covenant with His people (a
favour no other king can claime), and that He inclyned me to a
resolutione, by His assistance, to live and dye with my people in
defence of it. This is my resolutione, I professe it before God and
you, and in testimony heirof, I desyre to renew it in your presence ;
and if it pleis God to lenthen my dayes, I houpe my actions shall
demonstrat it.'* This blasphemous vow was of a piece with the
vulgar outrage on religion about to be perpetrated in Scone, and
with the dishonour of the political opportunists, who publicly enforced
the Covenants and Act of Classes, while they welcomed the return
to Parliament of men who hated these bonds. The Church was
made the confessional for aspirants to place, and Parliament a
meeting-house for pious dissemblers, from the hour when Argyll
became bewitched with the promises of relief from his bankruptcy,
of advancement to ducal honours, and of the marriage of Charles
to his daughter, Ann — a king's barter for a subject's honesty.^
Swashbucklers, such as James Turner, laughed at the credulity of
the clergy.
Colonel Robert Montgomery was commissioned to crush the
western army if it refused co-operation with the Nationalist party ;
but, while Parliament sat, he was able to report that General
Lambert had routed the Covenanters at Hamilton on ist December,
and captured Ker, who was wounded. Ker was sent to an English
prison, where he was consoled by sentimental letters from Samuel
Rutherford. Strachan vainly made a final effort to rally the
Whiggamores before he sought refuge at Cromwell's headquarters
in Edinburgh. On 24th December the Castle of Edinburgh was
delivered up, before Cromwell's heavy ordnance could pound it into
submission, and soon the Lowlands, a few guerillas excepted, were
in English hands.
The Estates agreed to the coronation of Charles, authorised
that outward compliance with the Covenants should be the right of
' Balfour, iv. 185 ; Act. Pail. Scol., vi. ii. boZa. - Gardiner, Hist, of Commonwealth, i. 349.
SCOTLAND'S THREE RULERS 25
entrance to the Royalist ranks, and contemplated penal Acts against Origin of the
.,.^ . T- • 1 11 11 Resolutioners.
compilers with the Sectaries. Forgetting the old troubles over
jurisdiction, they menacingly ordered Robert Douglas to convene
the Commission of Assembly in Perth on 12th December, and to
obtain a judgment on the main question then at issue, namely,
whether it was lawful to reinstate those formerly purged out of
the army by the Act of Classes. A quorum, chiefly of Fife ministers,
assembled, and a majority, homologating the crafty proposition that
it was a virtue to follow a Covenanted King, resolved to reply in the
affirmative, that all persons except excommunicates, the forfeited,
vicious, Discovenanters and professed enemies of God's cause,
were eligible for defence of their country against the Sectaries.
That was the first resolution. The Commission received a second
query on 19th March as to the lawfulness of admitting to the
Committee of Estates persons formerly debarred, but now after
satisfaction admitted to the Covenant. On this point the second
resolution was not intended to afford a full answer; at the same
time, the Commission desired Parliament to admit to the Committee
all save a few ' pryme actors against the state.' ^ Those who upheld
those resolutions were henceforth styled Resolutioners, and those
Remonstrants who protested against them were afterwards called
Protesters.'-^ The reply of the Commission gave great offence to
the anti-Malignant party, and several of their leaders — Wariston,
Chiesley, and others — dissociated themselves from assenters to the
new policy, and with army officers left their appointments on the
ground that there was a departure from principle. The Presbytery
of Stirling made a strong protest, which Cromwell caused to be
printed with the title : A Remonstrance of the Presbytery of Stirling
against the present conjunction with the Malignant party} The
tendency of the extremists of the Covenanting party was towards
' Balfour, iv. 197, 270.
- Six hundred ministers adhered to the resolutions, and, with the exception of forty, all
conformed to Episcopacy in 166 1 : Life 0/ Blair, 362 note. Other authorities reckon there
were seven hundred and fifty Resolutioners : Thurloe, Stale Pap., iv. 557-S; Baillie, Letlcrs,
iii. 299. ^ Row, Blair, 256.
VOL. 11. D
26 THE COVENANTERS
an alliance with the English Sectaries, which caused the Commission,
early in 165 1, to issue an Act censuring those who complied with the
Sectarian army. Some of the Protesters visited Cromwell in Glasgow
and discussed the situation with him.
This acknowledgment by the ministers was all the politicians
wanted. An Act summoning fresh levies, the penitents included, was
passed on 23rd December. This was the signal for the King's
supporters to rush to church to be shriven and made eligible to attend
at the coronation on New Year's Day. On the other hand, all that
could be done for the slaves taken at Dunbar was to read their
petition before enlisting other dastards, who met a worse fate at
Church ordains Worcester. Bcfore Parliament adjourned till 5th February, the
humiifation. Church, Still anxious to secure a divine blessing on these dubious
movements, ordained two preparatory services— Sabbath, 22nd Decem-
ber, being devoted to fasting and humiliation for the national sins,
and the Thursday thereafter for the particular sins of the Stuart
dynasty.^ Charles was dutiful and gracious enough to fast and
mourn with his subjects. After the penance was over he slyly said,
' I think I must repent too that ever I was born.' As remarkable a
scene took place in Largo church, when the worldling, Lauderdale,
compeared to own his sin, and heard Mr. James Makgill descant on
Rehoboam from the text, ' And when he humbled himself the wrath
of the Lord turned from him.' Thereafter Lauderdale lifted up his
right hand and swore both Covenants." General Middleton was even
more docile, and donned the sackcloth uniform of a penitent excom-
municate in Dundee church, on 12th January, in order to obtain his
certificate. To keep the balance true, that very day in Perth,
Strachan was excommunicated and 'delivered to the devil.'* Every-
thing was in train for the restoration of the power of the Crown.
Two miles north-west from Perth, overlooking the Tay, stood
the ancient palace of Scone, and near by a new parish church, built
' Cf. Patrick Gillespie's sermon, Rulers' Sins the Causes of National Judgments, or a
Sermon preached at the fast upon the 2bth Day of December 1650.
2 Lamont, Diary, 25 ; Minutes of Presbyteries of St. Andrews and Cupar, 60, 61 (Abbots-
ford Club). ' Balfour, iv. 240.
SCOTLAND'S THREE RULERS 27
out of the old abbey. To that sacred 'Mount of Belief the Kings
of Alban came to sit on the Lia Fail, or Stone of Destiny, and
be crowned. There Charles 11. also came to take his ' tottering
crown ' and brook his realm, although the fabulous palladium now
rested on foreign soil. Coronation day was ist January 1651, but coronation of
the brilliancy of that of 1633 could not be reproduced in the dead of ^^^'^^^^^^ ^
winter, when many misfortunes had thrown a cloud over the land, January 1651.
and dissipated its seasonable joy.' The bishops were gone, the
English glory shone in a hostile camp, and sour Scots faces looked
from beneath clerical hats and iron bonnets. Into the upholstered
church the Prince, the Honours, and the Estates of Scotland were
ushered. The elevated throne was vacant. A chair afforded the
Prince a seat before the pulpit, in which the then Moderator, Robert
Douglas, a kinglike man, with royal blood in his veins according to
whisperers about Queen Mary, and a manly Resolutioner, was stand-
ing. Charles could not forget him of the dark Dunfermline days.
The ancient ceremonial he had to conduct was to be shorn of the
anointing as savouring of superstition, and to be made more effective
by sustained advices. After prayer, the celebrant expounded the
coronation of J cash and the covenant of Jehoiada, and drew out
every parallel to the case of his Prince. The sins of the Stuarts had
made theirs a tottering crown, which now would fall if Charles put
on crown and sin together. Unction was a popish device, with the
' limbs of Antichrist,' put to the door, and to be exchanged for the
unction of Grace. The Covenant bound the King to the nation and
to God, and must be renewed for the maintenance of Reformed
Religion, the extirpation of false religion — Popery, Prelacy, profanity
— and the unification of the people under the Crown, Parliament, and
Church in the enjoyment of the national liberties. The people expected
their King to remember his father's sins and turn good like Joash, to
purge the Court, cleanse the Church, and reform the masses and
himself. With the tormenting spirit of a risen Buchanan or Melville
he trounced all round, and while disowning extremists, said a chari-
' Gaillie, Letters, iii. 127.
28 THE COVENANTERS
table word for the enlistment of penitent Malignants. The Covenant
was the sine qua non. Although ' prayers are not much in request at
Court,' said he, the King must pray and prevail. He must avoid the
euilt of his meddlesome grandsire, who laid the foundation for the
mischief done by his father. On this doctrine Douglas besought a
blessing.
The representatives of the people in the General Assembly
marched in and formed a bodyguard at the pulpit stairs. The two
fateful Covenants, 1638 and 1643, written on one fair parchment,
were produced and tediously read. The Moderator proceeded to
pray that grace might be given to Charles to keep his vows. Charles
knelt, held up his right hand, then swore this oath : —
King Charles's ' I> Charles, King of Great Britain, France and Ireland, do assert and declare,
oath. by my solemn Oath, in the Presence of Almighty God, the Searcher of Hearts, my
Allowance and Approbation of the National Covenant, and of the Solemn League
and Covenant, above written, and faithfully oblige myself to prosecute the Ends
thereof in my Station and Calling ; and that I for Myself and Successors shall
consent and agree to all Acts of Parliament enjoining the National Covenant
and Solemn League and Covenant, and fully establishing Presbyterial Government,
the Directory for Worship, Confession of Faith, and Catechisms, in the Kingdom
of Scotland, as they are approven by the General Assemblies of this Kirk, and
Parliaments of this Kingdom ; and that I shall give my royal assent to Acts or
Ordinances of Parliament passed, or to be passed, enjoining the same in my other
Dominions : And that I shall observe these in my own Practice and Family, and
shall never make Opposition to any of these, or endeavour any change thereof.'
Charles then subscribed the Covenants — (National, and Solemn
League) — to which the King's oath was subjoined. He ascended the
platform, showing himself, and the Lyon-King demanded assent to
his election. The audience responded, ' God save the King, Charles
the Second.' He descended. The Moderator at the head of the
clergy asked if he would take the Coronation Oath appointed by the
first Parliament of James vi., and found him willing. He knelt again,
lifted up his right hand, and swore the oath. After being robed in
• The Covenant signed by Charles is preserved in the Bodleian Library : Clarendon
MSS., vol. 40 f. 80 {Cal. Clar. State Pap.^dj, No. 347). Cf. Appendix. Act. Pari. Scot., VI. ii.
161, 7 Feb. 1649; Decl. Gen. Assent., 27 July 1649; Bute, Scottish Coronations, 192-3 ;
NicoU, 42-7. Cf. facsimile facing page 2 of this volume.
SCOTLAND'S THREE RULERS 29
purple, the Prince was asked to take the Sword of State in defence of xheCorona-
the Faith, the Church, the Covenants, and Justice. Douglas prayed ''°" '^ ^''°'"''
God to purge the Crown of the sins of Charles. Argyll placed it on
his head. The nobles touched it and swore allegiance. The Earl of
Crawford and Lindsay placed the sceptre in his hand, whereupon
Argyll conducted him to the throne. For the first time in the
national history had laymen ousted the Church from the office of
proffering the symbols of sovereignty to the Monarch. Again
Douglas interpreted the function, and warned Charles of the Stuart
sins. A royal pardon was proclaimed. The King showed himself
to the crowd, who shouted 'God save the King.'
On his return, the catalogue of the Scots Kings was recited.
The Lords swore to be the King's liegemen according to the
Covenants, then kissed the royal cheek. Standing, Charles received
the benediction. Douglas had still his peroration to give, and,
harping on the Covenants, adjured ruler and ruled that if they broke
the Covenants, God would turn the King from his throne and the
nobles from their possessions.
Charles, in order to evince his ingenuousness and sincerity,
appealed to his lieges, ' that if in any time coming they did hear or
see him breaking that Covenant, they would tell him of it, and put
him in mind of his oath.' ^
King James was once more flagellated, and then the climax was charies, now
reached— ' Sir, you are the only Covenanted King with God and His kJ;^'"^""'^
people in the world. ... Be strong and show yourself a man ! '
Prayer followed. The congregation sung the Twentieth Psalm,
concluding —
' Deliver, Lord, and let the King
Us hear, when we do call.' -
After the benediction was pronounced, the King, robed, sceptred, and
crowned, escorted by the Court, re-entered the palace before returning
to Perth. When night descended the hill-tops gleamed with bonfires.
' Somers, Tracts, vi. 117 ; Row, Blair, 256.
^ Form of the Coronation, Aldis, List, 1441-4.
30 THE COVENANTERS
For an indecent outrage on religion and patriotism one could not
readily find a match to that perpetrated at Scone by the libertine,
Charles.
The secret Charles now had a good pretext for encouraging his secret aim to
Charles. revenge his father's death, to oust and destroy the regicides, and to
establish the autocracy cherished by the Stuart Kings. At the head
of a Scottish army of Royalists, he might retrieve the fortunes of his
house. In one ignorant of the complications of the times such
enthusiasm was natural ; and there was an unpardonable insult in the
shrewd counsel of the Hope brothers, Craighall and Hopetoun, that
Charles should ' treatt with Cromwell for one half of his cloake before
he lost the quhole.'^ He ostracised the Hopes and sought temporary
comfort in the advice of Argyll, whose own influence was waning on
account of his defection from the extremists of his own party. The
increasing success of the new policy, whereby the King was sur-
rounded by former opponents of the rigid system of the Covenanters,
resulted in the depreciation of Argyll. Charles had already craved
Hamilton to try to mitigate that ' rigidness,' and in the recall of
Hamilton there was the plain signal to Argyll that his power was on
the wane. Taking the hint, Argyll left the Court. Yet, because
Charles conceived that the lever of Presbyterianism in Scotland and
England could raise him to dominion, he tried to fulfil his Covenanted
promises ; and, to accomplish the end in view, offered to marry
Charles II. and Argyll's daughter, Ann. He asked his mother to approve of this
Campbe"" Sacrifice to a hated faith. But the Queen-mother and Cardinal
Mazarin abhorred the regicide tribe and their compatriots, and
rejected the base artifice. No one could imagine Charles imple-
menting his betrothal after he had utilised Argyll and his redshanks
in the victorious campaign of his imagination. In due course the
match was departed from.^
The raising of the northern levies went on apace, notwithstanding
the vituperations of the Remonstrant clergy. For their offence of
' Balfour, iv. 239.
^ Gardiner, Hist, of Commonwealth, i. 301, 349, 352— citing authorities.
SCOTLAND'S THREE RULERS 31
preaching against the resolutions ' as involving ane conjunctione with
the malignant partie in the land,' which they considered contrary to
the Word and Covenant, James Guthrie and David Bennet, ministers
of Stirling, were cited before the Committee of Estates and ordered
to remain in ward in Perth for a time. On 20th February, they in
turn refused to acknowledge the jurisdiction of the Crown in such
a purely ecclesiastical cause.'
Charles sat with the Parliament when it met in Perth on 1 3th Parliament
March under the presidency of Lord Burleigh, who superseded Lord "4h Marc" '
Loudoun. The latter too much favoured 'the Campbell faction' to '^^i-
be retained in the chair at this crisis. The chief business was to
elect Charles to be generalissimo of the army, to restore the known
friends of the throne, and to propound a query to the Commission
of the Church as to the advisability of reponing on the Committee
of Estates those persons debarred under former acts of disability.
While the Commission declined to give a full categorical answer to
the query, as before stated (p. 25), they recommended the employ-
ment of all penitents, excepting a few notable persons. They further
supported this recommendation by the issue from Perth, 20th March
165 1, of an 'Exhortation and Warning,' in reality a patriotic mani-
festo, adjuring the people to rise under the King and defend their
country. Even this was not a sufficient concession. The Commis-
sion of Assembly was next asked to agree to a repeal of the ' Act of
Classes' and to promote a 'general unity.' The Commission, before
agreeing to this recalcitrant measure, stipulated that Parliament
should first pass a statute ' for the security of religion, the worke of Act securing
Reformation, and persons quho have beine steadfast in the Covenant '^'^^■*"^"'*'^^-
and causse.' The King took an active part in the appointment of a
War Committee, which provoked so much dissent from the Argyll
party that the Chancellor and Lothian flouted the King with deserting
his friends who set him on the throne. This desertion was more
apparent after the return of the envoy with the ultimatum that Lady
' Peterkin, Records, 639 ; Balfour, iv. 247-53, 263.
32
THE COVENANTERS
The new national policy was
2nd June 1651.
Military
successes of
Cromwell.
Ann Campbell was not to be Queen
not to be guided by Argyll, at least.
The Parliament met in Stirling in May, gave the Church the
demanded security in an Act ratifying other relative Acts since 1649,
and providing a bond whereby those excluded from Parliament should
be readmitted on binding themselves not to carp at these Acts and
Act of Classes their consequences. The Act of Classes, 1646, and the Act of 1649
repealed, were repealed on 2nd June. The King had proved a match for his
astute opponents.^
Meantime Cromwell had failed to draw Leslie off his strong post
on the hills south of Stirling, and had recourse to an unexpected
movement. He established a camp under Lambert at North
Queensferry, whence Lambert issued to attack and rout a force of
Scots under Sir John Brown and Colonel Holborn at Inverkeithing,
20th July, where 2000 Scots fell, and Brown and 1500 men were
captured. Cromwell crossed the Forth and marched to Perth, thus
getting between the northern army under Middleton and Leslie, and
leaving the way into England open for the latter. The apparent
peril of the situation was nullified by the arrangements made by
Cromwell for the movement of his southern armies. Despair, not
courage, constrained the War Committee to essay the rash enterprise
to which Cromwell tempted them." They counted on a Royalist
rising in England and Wales. They were doomed to disappoint-
ment. The only man of influence who joined the invaders was the
Earl of Derby with 300 retainers. Presbyterians and Episcopalians
equally looked askance at the Scots. English Presbyterianism was in
a moribund condition, and its leaders knew their own impotency.
On 31st July, Charles and Leslie with 20,000 men left Stirling for
Carlisle by way of Annandale and Eskdale. Argyll, Loudoun, and the
party of conciliation stood aloof from this mad enterprise, and allowed
Hamilton and the pretended penitents to march to disaster. Charles
' Balfour, iv. 301-7; Act. Pari. .Scot., vi. ii. 672-7; Act, Sth January 1646; Act, 23rd
January 1649 : Act. Pari. Scot., VI. i. 503 ; VI. ii. 143.
'^ Hamilton to Crofts, 8th August : Cary, Memoirs, ii. 305.
Charles and
Scots army
march into
England.
SCOTLAND'S THREE RULERS 33
and his 16,000 wearied followers reached Worcester on 22nd Ausfust.
Four days later he issued a manifesto declaring for the Covenant, and
promising an Act of Oblivion for all except the regicides. Cromwell
followed hard upon his heels, while the armies of Harrison, Fleetwood,
and Lambeth bore down upon Charles. Cromwell, taking the east
coast road as far as Durham, crossed central England, passed through
Stratford-on-Avon and entered Evesham, between Worcester and
London, on 27th August. The Parliamentary forces were double
those of the Scots.
Leslie drew up his army on the right or western bank of the Battle of
Severn, in a corner where the Teme joins the Severn, and he 3rd September
destroyed the bridge over the Teme. It was the anniversary of the '^5i-
rout of Dunbar, 3rd September. Cromwell lay to the east across the
river. He divided his force into three : one division lay across
the road to London, another moved south and lay ready to cross the
Severn, and the third crossed in the south and marched up to the
Teme. The movement of these two divisions over two bridg-es of
boats succeeded. The Scots were stubbornly driven from hedge to
hedge into Worcester city. Charles watched the unequal fight from
the cathedral tower. He saw the weakening of the division on the
London road, and hurled troops through the Sudbury gate, and
himself gallantly charged against the enemy. At first the English
gave way. Cromwell himself hurried back over the bridge of boats
with reinforcements, and, gallantly leading his men, repelled the
Scots and made them break. The Ironsides cut them to pieces.
Capturing ' Fort Royal,' Cromwell turned its guns upon the fugitives
fleeing through the streets. Charles was reluctant to fly. ' Shoot me
dead,' said he, 'rather than let me live to see the sad consequences
of this day.'' Into every avenue where the Scots ran they fell into
cleverly prepared traps. Few escaped death or capture." The
peasantry helped the regulars to wipe out the invaders. The
baggage and munitions of war were all taken. Of prisoners over six
thousand were brought in, including Leslie, Rothes, Lauderdale,
' Airy, Charles II., i6l. * Firth, Oliver Cromwell, 291.
VOL. II. E
34
THE COVENANTERS
King Charles.
Kelly, Middleton, Montgomery, Thomas Dalyell (Binns), and many
other officers, as well as nine ministers.^ The Duke of Hamilton,
before he died of his wounds, had four painful days given him in
which to ponder over that essay on death and immortality which he
wrote the night before the battle. The Earl of Derby, by recovering
from his wounds, met a worse fate on the traitor's block at Bolton.
Wanderings of The King escaped. For six weeks, there followed the romantic hunt
and hair-breadth escapes in circumstances evincing devotion only
equalled in that shown to ' Bonnie Prince Charlie.' His adherents
scorned the reward offered for him. Yet he preferred his terrible
privations to seeking security among the Scots. They afterwards
had a feeble joke at his expense, saying their Achan hid himself in
an aik (oak). At length, in the unsanitary plight of dirty vagrants,
Charles, with his companion Wilmot, reached France on i6th October
and cast himself, a starveling, on the charity of friends." The Pope
would not grant him a subsidy until he implemented in face of Holy
Church his proposal to be converted to Romanism.^
Argyll, as soon as Charles took command of his army, with
Hamilton as lieutenant-general and Leslie as major-general, realised
that his Sovereign discounted the Campbells as a military factor.
While the Scots levies were being dragged reluctantly into the field,
and cavaliers were counterfeiting repentance in order to obtain
mercenary employment in the so-called army of patriots, the Assembly
was endeavouring to silence the dissentients from the Royalist policy.
It met in St. Andrews on i6th July, and Balcarres was Commissioner.
Members had the unedifying experience of hearing Andrew Cant
open the meeting with a condemnation of the recalcitrant policy, and
Douglas, the Moderator, traverse Cant's opinions. Before the business
was allowed to begin, Guthrie protested against certain members
taking their seats, while Professor John Menzies, Aberdeen, proposed
debarring the whole Commission for their defections. There was the
' Lament, 43.
- Cf. extant begging letters to John Knox, minister of Leith, 3rd and 4th August 1652, as to
his 'straights and necesitys.' Sold by W. Brown, Bookseller, Edinburgh. His 'friend'
Knox was deprived in 1662 ! -^ Airy, 168.
Assembly at
St. Andrews,
Perth, and
Dundee, in
July 1651.
SCOTLAND'S THREE RULERS 35
usual wrangle, Douglas challenging this slander, and Blair offering
mediation. Rutherford, and other twenty-one sympathisers, protested
against the meeting as unconstitutional/ The Resolutioners voted
Douglas into the chair. The temper of the diets was not improved
by an impolitic request from the King that the opponents of the
Resolutions should be censured, nor by a trenchant epistle from
Wariston. Before they could settle to legislation, the news from
Inverkeithing made them seek safety in Dundee. There, on 22nd
July, Rutherford's cogent Protest declining the Assembly was read.
Balcarres in vain demanded that the twenty-two absent Protesters Deposition of
should be reported for civil punishment for their reflections on the
King, Parliament, and Church. The Assembly ordered Presbyteries
to deal with them. It was ultimately agreed to cite Guthrie, Patrick
Gillespie, James Simson, James Naismith, and John Menzies. They did
* not compear. The Assembly deposed Guthrie, Gillespie, and Simson,
suspended Naismith, and referred Menzies to the Commission.^
After the meeting of the Assembly at St. Andrews, a work was
published entitled A Vindication of the Freedom and Lawfulness of
the late Asse?nbly, etc.^
This was answered by The Nullity of the Pretended Assembly at
Saint Andrews and Dundee^
This ill-advised policy of the Moderates of conciliating a faithless
King and worthless politicians while coercing their conscientious and
wiser co-religionists — the Protesters — was for ever fatal to the unity
of the Church of Scotland. That great schism, which the Covenant
' Peterkin, Records, 631 ; Lamont, 40. ^ Row, Blair, 278.
' Vindication, by James Wood : Review by Guthrie from notes of Wariston ; cf. Baillie,
Letters, iii. 213.
' 4to, pp. 312, 1652. The Nullity, p. 79, gives list of forty Remonstrants : Stranraer,
TurnbuU ; Kirkcudbright, S. Row ; Wigton, Richeson ; Ayr, Wylie ; Irvine, Mowet ; Dum-
barton, Henry Semple ; Paisley, A. Dunlop ; Glasgow, P. Gillespie ; Hamilton, Nasmith ;
Lanark, Sommerville ; Auchterarder, Murray ; Perth, Rollok ; Dunkeld, Oliphant ; Kirkcaldy,
MoncriefF; Cupar, Macgill ; St. Andrews, S. Rutherfurd ; Forfar, Lindsay ; Arbroath,
Reynolds ; Aberdeen, Cant ; Kincardine, Cant ; Dumfries, Henry Henderson ; Penpont,
Samuel Austine ; Lochmaben, Thomas Henderson ; Middlebie, David Lang ; Jedburgh,
John Livingston ; Turriff, Mitchell ; Garioch, Tellifer ; Kelso, Summervail ; Earlstoun, John
Veitch ; Chirnside, Ramsay ; Edinburgh, Robert Trail ; Linlithgow, Melvill ; Biggar, Living-
stone ; Dalkeith, Sinclair ; Stirling, James Guthrie ; Deer, Keith ; Elgin, Brodie ; Inveraray,
Gordon ; Dundee, Oliphant.
36 THE COVENANTERS
itself banned, and time never remedied, was not the only fruit of this
Laodicean assembly.
The public Resolutions were a source of discord to both sections
of the protesting party — those who, like James Guthrie, held them to
be unscriptural, and those who maintained their incongruity with the
former resolutions of the Church to be done with the Malignant party.
But both sections, and many other Covenanters as well, held that
Sin, personal, ministerial, official, regal, and national, was the root of
all their domestic troubles and ' The Causes of God's Wrath ' on a
sinful land. They agreed that this opinion or fact should be publicly
voiced, and promulgated in express terms. When they met to con-
descend on the form of the declaration, there was division of opinion
and adjournment of debate. The Commission had, after Dunbar,
published Causes for Humiliation, but the anti-Resolutionists did not
consider them exhaustive, at a meeting held at Glasgow in September
1 65 1, which was adjourned to meet at Edinburgh in October.
Thither the Protesters came by urgent request.^ The whole questions
■ The ministers and elders who attended the 'Confessions' of the Ministers in 165 1, which
resulted in the production of The Causes of'Cod's Wrath, were named in the Process against
Wariston as follows : —
Thomas Ramsay Alexander Moncrieff
Samuel Row John Murray
Thomas Wyllie Alexander Bartane
John Nevay Hugh Kennedy
Hary Semple John Sinclair
Patrick Gillespie John Cleland
John Carstairs Thomas Hog
James Nasmyth William Wishart
Frances Aird Robert Row, Elders,
Robert Lockhart and laird of Hiltoune
William Jack laird of Greinhead
William Somervell laird Dolphinton
Alexander Livingston Sir James Melvill
James Donaldson Colonel Hacket
Samuel Rutherford Lord Wariston
James Guthrie Sir John Cheislie
Robert Traill Archibald Porteous
John Stirling - Patrick Anderson
James Symson George Gray
William Oliphant Andrew Hay
George Nairn Colonel Ker »
Gilbert Hall (Sir James Stewart ?).
Act. Pari. Scot., vii. App. 66.
SCOTLAND'S THREE RULERS ^y
of the hour, reh'gious and political, were discussed, but 'they only
emitted some causes of a fast,' and declared the root sin to be the
Restoration/ The ten ' General Heads of the Causes why the Lord
contends with the land,' as agreed upon by the Commission, were
accepted, and it was agreed that these should be amplified, after this
meeting held in October, as stated in the work itself.
James Guthrie is usually credited with the clerical work of pre-
paring the manifesto — Hugh Kennedy also being associated in it —
which appeared with the title, Causes of the Lords wrath against
Scotland manifested in his sad late Dispensations. Whereunto is
added a Paper, particidarly holding forth the Sins of the Ministery."
The manuscript, subscribed by Wariston, was given by him to
John Ferrier, who carried it to Christopher Higgins the printer, who,
in turn, executed the work as instructed by Colonel Fynick.^
The indictment of Guthrie bore that he was the compiler,
but Guthrie in defence pleaded that he was only one of the
compilers and enlargers of the 'Heads.''' The indictment of
Wariston also accused him of being art and part in the compilation.''
Setting apart the fact that King Charles was a pledged Covenanter,
the pamphlet was the rankest treason possible. Otherwise it was
both legal and justifiable. So widespread was the influence of this
pamphlet that Parliament enjoined that Remonstrators and persons
accessory to it should remove ten miles from the Capital." It was
burned by the common hangman.
The Assembly, as if ashamed of the West Kirk Declaration,
authorised this interpretation of it : ' That the King's interest is not to
be owned but in subordination to God, the Kirk being ever willing,
as their duty is, to own and maintain in their station his Majesty's
interest in that subordination, according to the Covenants.' '^
' Row, Blair, 266, 270 ; StippL, 285, 286. - 4I0, n.p., 1653, pp. 98 ; Aldis, List, 1472.
' Act. Pari. Scot., vii. App. 66. * Ibid., 35, 3O-42.
^ Ibid., 10. "i66i,c. II. ' Petcrkin, i?tfcor^j, 636.
38
THE COVENANTERS
CHAPTER XIX
THE RULE OF THE IRONSIDES
Cromwell's
' crowning
mercy. '
Cromwell accepted his victory at Worcester as the divine sign of
approval of a change of government.' The day after the battle he
sent a dispatch to Lenthall, the Speaker, in which he restrained his
great exultation, expressing the hope ' that the fatness of these
continued mercies may not occasion pride and wantonness,' so that
righteousness, justice, mercy, and truth might be the nation's ' thankful
return to our gracious God.' . . . ' The dimensions of this mercy are
above my thoughts. It is for aught I know a crowning mercy.' That
was prophetic ; the sword of the Ironside returned to its scabbard.
He had probably heard of the success of Monck in the north. While
the hunt ran on in England, Monck and his subordinates were active.
On 14th August the governor of Stirling Castle surrendered that hold,
and left Monck free with seven thousand men to invest Dundee.
Dundee in 1651 was an exceedingly opulent, well-fortified city,
whose roadstead was crowded with merchantmen, whose lock-fast
places were filled with the valuables of the surrounding districts." It
was held for the Covenanters by an old campaigner with Gustavus
Adolphus — Major-General Robert Lumsden of Mountquhanie — whom
Cromwell had captured at Dunbar.
Acting-General Leven and the Committees of State and Church
met in Alyth, on the Sidlaw Hills, in order to consider means for
thwarting Monck and saving Dundee. Well informed of this inten-
tion. Colonel Matthew Alured and eight hundred of Monck's Horse,
after a bold night ride in the rain, surrounded the town early on
' Letters clxxxii., clxxxiii. ^ Scotland aud Commonwealth, \\. (A.
THE RULE OF THE IRONSIDES 39
Thursday 28th August, and captured the Council.' It is to be hoped Aiured cap-
that Monck spared the gallant defenders of Dundee the galling sight counduT
of the procession of these crestfallen patriots wending its way down ^'y'''-
to Droughty Ferry harbour to be shipped to English prisons — a
goodly company, Leven, Crawford, Marischal, Ogilvy, Hepburn of
Humbie, Fowlis of Colinton, Cockburn of Ormiston, Fotheringham
of Powrie, Hamilton of Bargany, Archibald Sydserf, Colonel Andrew
Mill, and the following clerics : the moderator Douglas, the clerk
Andrew Ker, Mungo Law, John Smith, James Hamilton, John
Rattray, minister of Alyth, George Pitilloch, junior, and the historical
James Sharp, then minister at Crail. The people seemed to think
'the loons were weel away,' since they refused to pay a reek-tax to
purchase the liberty of their ecclesiastical leaders. For grim Leven
it was a sorrier ending than the ddbdcle at Dunbar. That argosy bore
away the last hope of a crushed nation. On Monck's demand that
the governor Lumsden should deliver up Dundee — a course recom-
mended by the city ministers — a refusal was sent to that ' collericke
and merciless commander.' - Monck began to batter his way in, and Siege and fall
succeeded on ist September. According to Balfour, the ' drunken °st September
deboscht people' could not resist the English veterans, who entered '^S'-
the breaches shouting, ' God with us.' With no little humour in so grim
a situation, each besieger displayed his shirt tail for a flying signal,
distinguishing- friend from foe in the gory pursuit. An indiscriminate
carnage ensued. Age, sex, nor holy place was respected. The
parish church was the last stand of Lumsden and his braves, who,
it was said, were slaughtered after quarter was allowed. It is not
to the credit of Monck that this brave man's head was fixed on a
pike over the door of the old steeple, unless Lumsden had broken
his parole." The victors were unleashed for blood, lust, and loot.
The sight of a puling infant sucking the breast of its dead mother
staggered the butchers and stayed their hands.'' After passion was
surfeited in this red carnival, the soldiery gaily dressed themselves,
' Scot, and Common., ii. g ; Lamont, C/iron., 41. ^ Balfour, iv. 315.
^ Miller, Fife Pictorial, etc., ii. 313. « Kidd, Guide to Dundee, 21.
40 THE COVENANTERS
being undistinguishable from officers, and swaggered along loaded
with fortunes. Prisoners were plentiful. A fleet of one hundred and
ninety ships was captured in the anchorage. Monck has been accused
of descending to personal barbarity when he threatened to ' scobe ' the
mouth of a minister who persisted in pleading for mercy.^
Subjugation The Other fortified towns be-north Tay soon capitulated, as
i6<;2°"^° ' ^^'^ Huntly and his men on 21st November, and Balcarres on 3rd
December. When Blackness was blown up, the Devil, according to
report, was seen sitting on its walls.' Dunnottar, under Ogilvy,
held out till 26th May 1652. Hunger alone compelled him to
surrender that imperious rock washed by the German Ocean, and
to treat with Colonel Morgan, its besieger. In Dunnottar were
deposited the Honours of Scotland. By a well-conceived stratagem
of Ogilvy and Mrs. Granger, wife of the minister of Kinneff, the
ancient regalia were smuggled out, and hidden in Kinneff Church,
before the English entered the fortress.^
Scotland, kingless, governmentless, beaten, lay at Cromwell's
feet. A few garrisons terrorised it. In February 1652 Monck left
the work of disarming and pacifying the Scots to his successor,
Major-General Richard Deane. The aim of the conquerors was
to unify the three kingdoms in a strong political confederation with-
out regard to distinctive religious systems.*
Soon after the battle of Worcester, a bill was introduced into the
English Parliament asserting the proprietorship of the Commonwealth
in Scotland, and proposing the settlement of its government. A
Council of twenty-one persons, of whom Cromwell was one, was
appointed to govern the two conquered kingdoms. Early in 1652
eight Commissioners were elected to visit Scotland and inaugurate
' Sco/. and Cotnmon., 12; Whitclocke, 490; Jervise, Memorials, 286; Maxwell, Old
Dundee, 542 ; Miinic. Hist, 75 ; Gumble, Monck, 42 ; Gardiner, Hist, of Common., ii. 67 ;
Row, Blair, 281 ; Nicoll, 57 ; Balfour, iv. 315.
2 Nicoll, 92.
^ Scott, Antiq., i. 1-49 ; Papers relative to the Regalia, Bann. Club, The Honours of
Scotland, Scot. Hist. Soc, vol. xxvi. ; Row, Blair, 332. For new details, cf. Scot. Hist.
Review, iv. 15, 309, April 1907.
« Cf. The Cromwellian Union, C. .S. Terry : Scot. Hist. Soc, 1902.
THE RULE OF THE IRONSIDES 41
the Government. They were Generals Monck, Deane, and Lambert,
Lord St. John, Sir Harry Vane the younger, Colonel Fenwick,
Major Soloway, and Alderman Tichborne.' Crushed and humiHated English
.... , . ■ annexation of
as Scotland was, she would not wilhngly assent to any mcorporatmg Scotland,
union. Diverse parties in Church and State were unanimous in
rejecting the English resolutions. In vain did the conciliatory Com-
mission promulgate a manifesto, promising justice and protection,
as well as enunciating a broad scheme of toleration, with liberty of
worship to the peaceable and law-abiding. Laymen and clergy alike
remonstrated that Protestantism was being menaced, Sectarianism
intruded, spiritual independence abolished, the Covenants wiped out,
evil encouraged, and the Constitution violated. The Commissioners
prohibited the exercise of all judicatories not licensed by Parliament,
and forbade the subscription of oaths and Covenants unless previously
sanctioned. An Act abolishing the authority of Charles 11. was
ceremonially proclaimed, 4th February, and the destruction at the
Cross of Edinburgh of the Royal Arms with every mark of indignity
showed the determination of the victors."
Nine days later, the English Commissioners met at Dalkeith with • The Tender.'
representatives of the counties and burghs, and proffered to them
the ' Tender,' or proposal of incorporation with England, after accept-
ance of which they were to be consulted as to practical details.
Freedom of worship was guaranteed to the established and dissenting
clergy. Some counties hailed the Tender with enthusiasm ; trading
centres were favourable to it ; but the clergy, more truly interpreting
the national feeling, would have none of it. James Guthrie and
other stalwarts preached against it, and suffered for their patriotism
in having troops quartered in their homes. Hatred of the Southron
only slumbered, and frequently showed itself in armed risings. The
Presbytery of Dunfermline went so far as to recommend the minister
of Dalgetty not to marry an English soldier to a Scots girl on account
of the unlawfulness of Cromwell's invasion.^
The Acts of the Executive, however, were approved of by the
' Heath, Chronicle, 304. - Nicoll, S0-3. " Ross, Glitnpscs, 220.
VOL. 11. F
42 THE COVENANTERS
Appointment Councll of State in England, who, on 6th April 1652, sent down four
judgef'^ judges, Owen, Smith, Marsh, and Mosely, to administer justice. The
Court of Session was thus superseded. To these four Englishmen
three Scots were added — Sir John Hope of Craighall, William
Lockhart of Lee, John Swinton of Swinton — Hope being appointed
President. At a later date, the impecunious Johnston accepted one
of these judgeships under the title of Wariston, or Judge Johnston.'
The judges had full power to appoint subordinate magistrates, and, to
their credit, it may be said that justice had never before been dispensed
with so impartial a hand. The magistrates were as popular as they
were effective. They undertook many duties now in the province of
representative councils, such as Poor-law Boards, Road Boards, Trades
Councils, Sanitary Authorities, and were a terror to evil-doers, and
protectors of the well-doing.
Submission of Argyll was the last of the powerful lords to submit to Monck.
After Worcester, Chancellor Loudoun and he had tried to galvanise
into life a provisional government and to promote an arrangement
with Monck. Monck replied that he could not negotiate without
instructions from the English Parliament. Argyll, eager to vault
into power again, lingered in his fastnesses and in vain endeavoured
to parley with the Commissioners. That his diplomacy did not inspire
much confidence in Monck is evidenced from the fact that after his
submission, 26th April, Deane and an armed force penetrated the
lordship of Argyle to establish garrisons, and to exact from Argyll
an unequivocal submission. This he got in August, Lome being
nominated as the. hostage for its exact fulfilment. Argyll, with his
curious fear of contingencies, satisfied his conscience by declaring that
he agreed to the civil part of Scotland being made into a Common-
wealth with England — ' My duty to religion according to my oath in
the Covenant always reserved.' Argyll at his trial pleaded that he
was not a free agent when he subscribed this submission.'-
With the leading Resolutioners out of the way the Protesters
' Omond, 157 et scq. ; Act. Pari. Scot., vi. ii. 747.
' State Trials, v. 1427 ; VVillcock, 280 ; Wodrow, i. 144.
THE RULE OF THE IRONSIDES 43
held an Assembly in Edinburgh, Livingstone in the chair, and after Rival Assem-
disclaiming the Assemblies of their opponents, resolved to carry on Edinburgh in
the work of the Church/ The work of the Protesters was nugatory. '^52.
Another Assembly, under the presidency of David Dickson, now
Professor of Divinity in Edinburgh, met in the Capital on 21st July
1652. The Protesters compeared to lodge a protestation subscribed
by sixty-three ministers and eighty laymen, who declared the Assembly
to be 'unlawful, unfrie, and unjust.' The Assembly threatened them
with discipline.^ They retaliated by making common cause with the
Commonwealth. Others, persecuted for religion, also found a court of
appeal in the alien Government. In 1652 the Presbytery of Aberdeen
summoned Sir Alexander Irvine of Drum for alleged popery. He
ignored their jurisdiction, and, on being excommunicated, appealed to
Monck on the ground that Presbytery was not authorised by the
Commonwealth. King Charles failed to allure Argyll from his new
allegiance, but other Highland chieftains were more easily incited to
take advantage of the conflict between England and Holland and
to rise in arms while Monck was absent in England. Scotland was
impoverished beyond description, and what with the confiscation of
estates to English officers, and the general taxation for keeping up
the army of occupation, no fewer than 35,000 arrestments for debt
were made. With a beggared gentry it was not difficult to persuade
Royalists such as Glencairn, Balcarres, Lome, Kenmure, Glengarry,
and others to take the field. Middleton was first selected to be
leader of the enterprise, but sickness laid him aside. Glencairn Highlanders
received the royal commission and unfurled the standard at Killin rfn'Tv^n
' Lilencann,
on 27th July 1653.^ Robert Lilburn, the Parliamentary commander, '^ss-
and the Commissioners considered Glencairn's military diversion to
be a trivial outbreak, and reckoned that the influence of the Remon-
strants would counterbalance the new rebellious movement. Still, the
clergy could not be depended on. Judge Hope declared that few of
them were honest, and that they twisted Scripture to the production
' Lament, 43 ;, Row, Blair, 286. • Lamont, 55.
" Scot, and Common., 1S6.
44 THE COVENANTERS
of error.' The Church still hankered after a Covenanted King, and
the ministers prayed for Charles till the custom was declared illegal.
Two of their number, Waugh and Knox, were long in prison for
breaking this law.'^ Others evaded the statute by circumlocutions, as
the Jacobites, a century afterwards, evaded similar orders. Patrick
Gillespie was one of the few who openly prayed for Cromwell, and
he had his reward in being appointed Principal of Glasgow University,
to the chagrin of Baillie and others.
Meantime great events had happened in England. On 20th April
1653, Cromwell and the officers had, in a high-handed manner, dis-
solved the Long Parliament (truncated after Pride's purge of Royalist
members in 1648), and convened in its place the short-lived Barebones
Parliament. The Cromwellian party in this Parliament immediately
dissolved it in order to invest Cromwell with supreme authority as
Cromwell Lord Protector. A subsequent instrument of government modified
Lord" " *hs autocratic nature of this appointment, and provided for the
Protector. establishing of a Parliament and Council of State. One result of this
reformation was the promulgation of a scheme of religious toleration,
to all but Papists, which provided for the establishment of Puritanism,
with any of its many forms of ecclesiastical government, and for the
permission of Episcopal worship when performed in private. The
unbending Royalists so harassed the Government that ten major-
generals were appointed to keep order in the provinces. Neither
the first nor the second Protectorate Parliament was an unqualified
success, and both were dissolved, the one in January 1655, the other
in February 1658.
The contending clerics indicted their Assemblies to meet in
Edinburgh on 20th July 1653. In St. Giles' Church only a thin
partition separated Resolutioners from Protesters. Lilburn associated
these conventions with the Highland rising and asked an injunction
from Cromwell to suppress them. That astute diplomatist did not
reply, and Lilburn determined to act on his own authority.^ In the
•' Nicoll, 124. - Baillie, iii. 253.
• ^ Colville, Byeiuays—Srotlnndiinthitlic Roiindheads, 336.
THE RULE OF THE IRONSIDES 45
Resolutioners' Assembly Dickson appositely expounded the differences
of Peter and Paul, and further exhorted the Church to unity and
peace. He was followed by his successor in the chair, Douglas, who
dilated upon schism. This preparatory service ended at four o'clock.
The prayer of Dickson constituting the Assembly was nearly finished
when the clatter of hoofs and the tramp of infantry were heard, and
Lieutenant-Colonel Cotterel, some officers, and a guard of musketeers
with lighted matches appeared in church. A loud voice with English
accent broke the silence. It came from Cotterel, who stood up on Edinburgh
a bench and said : ' Gentlemen, I am commanded to ask you by jisloWed by
what authority you sit here : if you have none from the Parliament, Coionei
^ •' ■' • ) T^i Cotterel, 20th
Commander-in-chief, or Judges, you are to go with me.' The juiy 1653.
Moderator, having cleared out non-members, replied : ' We sit here
by the authority of Jesus Christ and by the law of this land, whereby
we are authorised to keep General Assemblies from year to year,
according to the several Acts of Parliament, and every Assembly
meets by appointment of the former.' Cotterel bade them begone,
'or else he would make them rise on other terms.' Dickson craved
time to constitute the meeting and to appoint the next Assembly.
Cotterel was peremptory and summoned the musketeers. The
Moderator's final prayer and protest was interrupted rudely by one
of the officers. They stood waiting with their helmets on. Out
between the lines of soldiers the ministers were led, and were con-
ducted through the west gate over Bruntsfield Links, and drawn
up near the spot where the trunk of Montrose lay buried. On
this spot, set apart for the bodies of criminals, the roll was
taken. ^ Baillie, who was there, describes the scene : ' When he
had led us a myle without the towne, he then declared what further
he had in commission. That we should not dare to meet any
more above three in number ; and that against eight o'clock to-
morrow, we should depart the towne, under pain of being guiltie
of breaking the public peace. And the day following, by sound
' ' An Account of the late violence,' etc., Kings Pamphlets, E. 708 (23) ; Lamont, 69 ;
Scot, and Common., 163.
46 THE COVENANTERS
of trumpet, we were commanded off towne under paine of present
imprisonment. Thus our General Assembly, the glory and strength
of our Church upon earth, is, by your souldarie, crushed and trod
under feet, without the least provocatione from us, at this time,
either in word or deed.' ^ What made the situation more vexing was
Protest of that the Protesters sat on a while unmolested ; but their meeting was
also dissolved. And to their credit they drew up a protestation
against the unjustifiable suppression of the Assembly.' Of nine
hundred parish ministers, seven hundred and fifty were computed to
be Resolutioners, and this majority had now no supreme judicatory.
This collapse, without a blow struck, and with few regrets expressed
in favour of the Church, showed how very wearied the people were
with the conflicts and intrigues in connection with religion. Times
had changed since the interference of a foreign prelate had roused
the nation as one man.
The Remonstrants made use of their friendship with the English
Sectaries by appointing to vacant charges sympathisers with both
interests. In some cases the parishioners resented this intrusion.
Aggressiveness At Douglas, the Protcstcrs ordained Francis Kidd on a hillside, the
Prousters celebrants being protected from the furious people by English
troopers. At Bothkennar, John Galbraith was deposed, but remained
in charge. The two opposing Presbyteries of Stirling prepared to
settle another pastor. The parishioners nominated another Galbraith,
while Guthrie's Presbytery chose a preacher named Blair. When
the latter judicatory came to settle Blair, the parishioners defended
the church with missiles until the sheriff appeared and protected the
celebrants.^ Nevertheless the Remonstrants at heart were not favour-
able to the intruded Republican Government ; * the Protesters were
openly antagonistic to it. At the communion dispensed by Rutherford
and Alexander Moncrieff, at Scoonie, in June 1652, all persons who
had taken the Tender, as well as Englishmen, were debarred from the
' Letters, iii. 225. ^ Scot, and Common., 163 ; Row, Blair, 308.
^ Haillie, iii. 247, 258.
^ Broghill to Cromwell, 26th February 1655 ; Act. Purl. Scot., vi. ii. 899, 900.
THE RULE OF THE IRONSIDES 47
table.' While a blight fell on the Moderate party the Protesters
became more enthusiastic and tireless in ranging over the land,
resuscitating the almost forgotten sacraments, rebuking sin, and re-
inspiring evangelical fervour. By their zeal this remnant held itself
together as the nucleus of the Church whose rehabilitation at the
Revolution Settlement preserved Presbyterianism for Scotland."
Although at this time Cromwell in England was in a maze of Cromwell's
religious difficulties he shrewdly saw that 'the root of the matter ' ''""^^'
was in the Protesting party, and, at the suggestion of Lilburn, sent
for its leaders to deliberate on the deadlock and ' a way to satisfye
the godly in Scotland.''' Patrick Gillespie, John Livingstone, and
James Menzies went, but Douglas, Blair, and Guthrie refused the
invitation.^ The result of this visit of the triumvirate was the
arrangement of subsidies to the Universities of Glasgow and Aberdeen,
and the framing of an ordinance for the government of the Church.
This ordinance, 8th August 1654, practically established a 'Com-
mission of Triers ' for Scotland, in the instruction of the Council of
State to the Commissioners for visiting Universities to see that godly
presentees, who were capable preachers, as certified by four or more
ministers and elders in each of five districts, were settled in livinors.
All parties spurned this method of extinguishing presbyterial power
and privilege.
Monck returned to Scotland to restore peace by the sword. Muncu, his
George Monck, first Duke of Albemarle (1608-70), was a Devon- ';^'J"'*^^7''''
shire man, in the prime of life, of knightly lineage, a daring soldier
for Crown and Parliament. His loyalty to Charles got him two
years of imprisonment in the Tower. He became a Covenanter and
a devoted adherent of the Parliamentary party. His success in the
Irish wars was repeated at Dunbar. Cromwell trusted him. His
manliness and moderation made him a suitable administrator. His
sympathies were with the Moderates in the Church.* On 4th May
' Lamont, 51. - Burnet, Hist., i. 113; Lee. Hisl., ii. 376.
' Johnston to Guthrie, 29th March 1654 : Baillie, iii. 567.
< Baillie, iii. 243, 253. 5 md^ .57^ 535.
48 THE COVENANTERS
1654, Monck with pomp announced at the Cross of Edinburgh the
establishment of the Protectorate and the assumption of Scotland as
an integral part of the Commonwealth. Throne, Parliament Courts,
and other authorities were abolished, and new representative forms
of government were to be set up. He heralded a new era of free
trade, proportionate taxation, and national prosperity. Malcontents
from civil rule alone would suffer punishment. Persons in authority
would be responsible for rebels issuing from their estates, or presby-
teries, or families. A reward of .^{^200 was offered for Middleton,
Seaforth, Kenmure, and Dalyell.^ This conciliatory policy did not
appeal to the highest instincts, but it was popular and effective in
view of the impoverished condition of the country, where bankrupt
landlords became rebels out of sheer necessity. Argyll was arrested
in London for debt. Despite his father's wishes Lome joined the
rebels, now in arms under Middleton. Monck hunted them from
Inverlochy by Kintail to Inverness, and down to Blair-Athole. He left
his mark on the charred homesteads of the Camerons, Macdonalds,
Mackenzies, and other clans, and in retaliation Middleton devastated
the lands of the Campbells and their allies.
Still King Charles could not be prevailed upon to land and lead
his supporters, giving as his reason that they were not agreed among
themselves. He asked the Assembly's Commission to pray for him
and send chaplains to the forces." The peace made with Holland
made these prayers belated.
Dispersion of On iQth July Colonel Morgan and the Parliamentary troops came
xoyais orces. .^^^ touch with Middletou at Dalnaspidal and dispersed the Royalists
among the hills, capturing many, who were sent to the plantations
and to foreign military service. A skirmish at Aberfoyle and an
attack upon Campbeltown by Kenmure were unimportant incidents
in this risincj. Before the end of summer Glencairn and Kenmure
submitted; Middleton fled to the Continent early in 1655. The
Scots were forbidden the use of arms. Argyll loyally supported
Monck in the suppression of the insurgents, and the informative
' Thurloe, ii. 261. - Scot, and Common.., 28, 29, 3:, 198.
THE RULE OF THE IRONSIDES 49
letters he then sent to Monck were produced at the trial of Argyll.
to the dishonour of Monck.
In 1655 Gillespie and his party received a Commission from cromweii's
Cromwell for settling the troubled affairs of the Church on the lines jgttiTr'cHgion.
set forth in the Ordinance of 1654. In this Commission, Cromwell
expressed his approval of a national establishment of religion. It
was evidently intended to put the Church under the charge of the
Protesters, but had a different result in splitting up that party over
the question of the lawfulness of the Commission, Wariston and
Guthrie rejecting it for its Erastian character.' In 1655 a Council
of Eight, under the presidency of Lord Broghill (Roger Boyle,
younger son of the first Earl of Cork, created Earl of Orrery after
the Restoration, died 1679), was constituted in Edinburgh, and one
of its good offices was the persuasion of the Resolutioners to accept
the substance of the Ordinance and to live quietly under the Govern-
ment. Lord Broghill informed Cromwell that he set himself to win
the body of the ministry to accept his rule, but found the Wariston
and Guthrie Protesting party to be like the Fifth IVIonarchy and All-
hallows men, impossible to conciliate. Douglas, Dickson, Wood,
Hutchison, Smith, and ' Mr. Sharpe of Fife ' were more reasonable
and well disposed. This party was willing to coerce their intractable
brethren and pray for the English Government. Of Douglas he
wrote : ' I may truly say, he is the leadingest man in all the Church
of Scotland.' His record of Sharp is noteworthy: 'Mr. Sharpe is
a man I have made good use of in all this business, and one who,
I thinke, is devoted to your service.'" These men were to gain over
Patrick Gillespie, John Livingstone, and the Moderates to their party
of conciliation. Deposed pastors who had suffered for Malignancy
and the Engagement, such as Ramsay, Henry Guthry, Colville, and
others, were now welcomed back to the ministry. The Protesters
had only one panacea for the troubles — a fresh thorough purgation
» Nicoll, 163-6.
" IJioghill to Cromwell, ::6th Feljruary 1655 : Act. Pari. Scof., vi. ii. goo.
VOL. II. G
50
THE COVENANTERS
Unpopularity
of Presby-
teriani^m in
England.
Cromwell
supports
toleration.
all round. Cromwell had marked the failure of Presbyterianism to
establish itself on English soil.
In June 1646, the English Parliament established Presbyterianism,
but parishes were slow to appoint elderships, and ministers were tardy
in assembling in 'Classes,' as the ministerial courts were called.
Questions as to discipline and excommunication made the system
unpopular. On 29th August 1648, a final ordinance was passed,
authorising ' triers ' to test the fitness of the officials of the Church, so
that elderships, classical precincts, or presbyteries, and provincial and
national assemblies should be legally constituted. The toleration
extended to the sects rendered the scheme inoperative.' The West-
minster Assembly debated the matter thoroughly, and declared that
uniformity and toleration were incompatible, and that no platform
could peacefully accommodate Presbyterians and Sectaries. The
sword of the New Model at Naseby pot a different complexion on
this conflict of theologians, and gave the Independents a new status.
The sword gave a title to the sects which Parliament had to legalise
in an indulgence for tender consciences. The Scottish Covenanters
opposed toleration as tending to schism and atheism. In the mean-
time. King Charles agreed with the Scots in order to gain influence.
The second Civil War ended in the establishment of the principle
of toleration. This was formulated in the ' Agreement of the People'
presented by the officers to Parliament in January 1649, but a
long struggle ensued before Parliament legislated on the subject.
Cromwell's own aim was to unify Protestantism throughout Christen-
dom under the segis of the Commonwealth, and he tried to make his
dream substantial by promoting a secular policy which was unpopular
abroad. His idea of toleration may be gathered from his declaration
to the Irish: 'As for the people, what thoughts in the matter of
religion they have in their own breasts, I cannot reach ; but shall
think it my duty if they walk honestly and peaceably, not to cause
them in the least to suffer for the same.'^
Cromwell's first Parliament took into consideration a pronounce-
' Shaw, ii. 1-33. - Morlcy, Cromwell, 296.
THE RULE OF THE IRONSIDES 51
merit on toleration embodied in the ' Instrument of Government,' of
December 1653, and failing to define the limits of liberty of conscience,
appointed a committee to nominate a council of theologians, who were
to specify the fundamentals of religion. They duly reported their
finding. But it was not till 1657 that the second Cromwellian
Parliament resolved that the Scriptures should be the rule of faith,
and believers in the Trinity and in the Scriptures should suffer no
disability, unless they were Popish, prelatic, profligate, and blasphem-
ing persons. Cromwell accepted these resolutions ; so did the
revived Rump Parliament in May 1659. The next Parliament,
however, reverted to the Confession of Faith, and enacted that the
Solemn League and Covenant should be read annually and hung up
in every parish church.^
The Commonwealth did not by statute supersede Presbytery and Presbyterian-
establish Independency. The Classes simply disappeared through ihroj'gh
innate constitutional weakness. The easy, tolerant, good-natured '"Cerent weak-
ness of system.
Englishman did not take kindly to the disciplinary office of elder.
The average layman then had not the education to make him a
critic, nor the coercive spirit to justify his judgments on men. The
majority liked the old, easy-going, non-compulsive way they had
been accustomed to. There was also an active opposition to the
Presbyterians from the Independents, who considered that they had
as good a title to worship in the parish churches as the unwelcome
Presbyters. The inability of the latter to enforce discipline tended
to laxity, so that the people were in many places not catechised, and
had no opportunity, for long periods, of partaking of the Lord's
Supper. This scandal in the State Church gave rise in 1653 to
Voluntary Associations, who undertook to dispense the sacraments
and to revive decadent piety. With no middle ground between
Presbytery and Independency, and hating the thrall of Puritanism,
the English people yearned for a truce between Church and State.
The last General Assembly in England was held in May 1659.*
' liaiUie, iii. 405 ; Com. Jour., vii. 662, 862, 1st March 16C0.
- Shaw, ii. 161 ; Heath, 439.
52 THE COVENANTERS
At this crisis the most active promoter of a union between
■ parties was Robert Blair, who with Durham, minister of Glasgow,
and some brethren in Fife, regretted the censures passed on the
Protesters/ It was impossible to heal the rupture of the parties,
who waged a pamphlet war against each other. The Resolutioners
deemed it expedient that Cromwell should have authoritative informa-
tion regarding Church affairs, but were unable to select a suitable
Advent of delegate to present their case. At this point James Sharp, minister
1613-^1679.' ' of Crail in Fife, was talked of in this relation. His neighbours.
Wood of St. Andrews and Carmichael of Markinch, suggested his
appointment ; but Blair, with remarkable insight, was unfavourable
both to the delegate and his mission to an Erastian ruler. Sharp
was now (1656) in his forty-third year. He was born in Banff
Castle, on 4th May 16 13, his father, William, being factor to the
Earl of Findlater, and his mother being a kinswoman of the Earl
of Rothes. His reputed connection with some bagpiper is a jest or
myth, like that regarding Montrose, who in his youth was said to
have swallowed the devil in a toad. Sharp graduated at King's
College, Aberdeen, where he imbibed the tenets of the famous
Doctors, and repudiated the Covenant in 1638. He went to Oxford,
and, it is said, would have taken orders in the English Church had
not his health given way. His contemporaries accused him of carnal
frailties during his college days, and even of the murder of his own
illegitimate child ; but there is no evidence to sustain the horrid
charges.^ He returned to Scotland and became a professor of
philosophy in St. Andrews. A sympathiser with the Malignant
faction, he found a patron in the Earl of Crawford, who appointed
him to the Church of Crail, where he began his ministry on 27th
January 1649. His portrait conveys the impression of a man of no
great mental vigour or manly character, but rather of a cunning
' Ro\v, Blair, 303.
- Miscell. Scot., ii. ('Life of Sharp'), Pref. v.. Sharp accused of immorality with his sister-
in-law ; p. 19, with Isobel Lindsay ; p. 22. strangles baby. Cf also pp. 94, 97, loi. Eccl.
Records (St. Andrews and Cupar, 1641-9S), Edin. Abbots. Club, p. 89: ' Isbell Lyndsay
spouse to John Wilson in St. Andrews,' banished for reviling Sharp.
THE RULE OF THE IRONSIDES 53
busybody. Burnet declared that ' he had a very small proportion of
learning and was but an indifferent preacher.'^ He was ambitious.
His idols were power, pelf, and persons of position. His first cross
was laid on him when the General Assembly refused to sanction his
transfer from Crail to Edinburgh — that Mecca of ambitious com-
mitteemen and vain babblers of the Church." He managed to keep
in touch with the Resolutioners and with the Executive Government.
He was sent a prisoner from Alyth to London, but through the
influence of Wariston he was soon liberated, and returned, loth April
1652, to take the Tender, and to become a friend of Monck and the
English judges.^ His friend. Lord Broghill, considered Sharp to be
a suitable minister to accompany him tg London in August 1656.
He was then instructed by Dickson, Douglas, and Wood as to what sharp sent as
he should represent to Cromwell regarding the National Church.'' c^o^^l^g^j °
So early as this, Baillie describes Sharp as 'our professed friend.' August 1656.
Cromwell was pleased with the manner in which Sharp conducted
his business, but Argyll advised him to stay his judgment until he
heard his opponents. The adroitness of Sharp drew from Cromwell
the remark : ' That gentleman after the Scotch way ought to be
called Sharp of that Ilk."' The credulous Resolutioners hailed him
as 'the great instrument of God,' sent to cross the designs of the
Protesters and Remonstrants, especially of Wariston, who was a
member of the Upper House in the Second Protectorate Parliament,
1656-8." They lived to change their judgment upon 'that very
worthie, pious, wise, and diligent young man,' and to call their ' dear
James' a Judas.
To nullify his specious pleading and to promote their own formu- Envoys of the
lated demands for the appointment of committees to plant the Church ^'^'^*«^'^'^-
and settle its quarrels, especially by the renewal of the Act of
Classes, the Protesters also sent up a spokesman to Cromwell. This
was James Simson, minister at Airth, already mixed up in a vile
' Hist., i. 114. - Peterkin, Records, 589.
^ Cal. Slale Pap., 1651-2, p. 213 ; A. Hay, Diary, 42.
* Baillie, iii. 324, 330, 352, 568 ; Row, Blair, 328. ■• True and hr.partial Account, 34.
° Baillie, iii. 352 ; Row, Blair, 336.
54
THE COVENANTERS
A war of
pamphlets.
Waribton
becomes a
Cromwellian.
scandal and deposed by the Assembly.' He was joined by powerful
advocates in Guthrie and Gillespie, and three elders, Wariston,
Inglestoun, and Greenhead, who brought with them an incisive
indictment of their ecclesiastical persecutors. At the same time the
partisans Cant, Rutherford, and Trail, wrote to Cromwell explain-
ing the perplexing situation. Cromwell summoned the parties to a
debate, and with a cynical shrewdness appointed a council of twelve
to listen to the wrangle, in which Sharp had an opportunity of deny-
ing plain facts. In the spirit of Felix, Cromwell said he would hear
them at a more convenient season, and bade them go home and live
in peace. That they would not do. The Protesters so far prevailed
as to get the Act of Classes renewed, while Sharp had compensation
in being led to understand that this statute would remain a dead
letter. The Resolutioners in 1658, in a Declaration, accused the
Protesters of subverting the ecclesiastical government, and drew
forth a pungent reply from the pen of James Guthrie, it is said,
entitled Protesters no Subverters, and Presbytery no Papacy. A fresh
war of pamphlets began. Rutherford wrote A Survey of the Survey
of that Stimme of Church Discipline, penned by Mr. Thomas Hooker^
The preface accused the Resolutioners of being worse persecutors
than the bishops, and of being soul-murdering ministers who
encouraged the vicious and ignorant.^ In August, Sharp wrote to
his correspondent in London, Patrick Drummond, declaring that ' no
peace can be had with these men [Remonstrants] but upon their own
termes, how destructive soever to truth and order.' ^ Shortly after-
wards we find Sharp urging the prosecution of his opponents.
One unexpected result of the conference was the confirmation of
the allegiance of Wariston to the Protector. Wariston had seen his
country flourishing under the Ironsides, and realised that Cromwell
was a friend to religion and education. For his patriotism he had
lost office, and now with his large family was poverty-stricken. He
reaccepted his former post of Lord Clerk Register, and together
' Baillie, iii. 353, 573.
* Baillie, iii. 362, 375.
- London, i6;S.
< Add. MSS., ?3i
13, f. 66.
THE RULE OF THE IRONSIDES 55
with Cassillis and Sir William Lockhart, was elevated to Cromwell's
House of Peers, wherein he continued to sit during the regime of
Richard Cromwell. He also took a share in the new administration
which succeeded Richard's rule, until he was dispossessed of his
office in 1659.
On 3rd September 1658, his day of fate, Oliver Cromwell, weary Death of
of the interminable strife of political and religious parties, found 3,,] September
rest, and died expressing his confidence in these words : ' I am a con- '^^S-
queror and more than a conqueror through Christ that strengtheneth
me,' and praying earnestly for the people for whom he had fought.
He was unquestionably the greatest Briton of his age. His Celtic
blood determined his ideas in a religious mould. The secret of his
power lay in his conviction that he was a humble instrument pre-
destined to act for his country's welfare, under the guidance of the
Divine hand. It moved him to become the representative and
defender of Protestantism in Europe, in opposition to its Catholic
rulers. In this action he was ably supported by the poet Milton.
He strove to confer unity and peace on the British Empire, and if
he followed the patterns of the Old Testament rather than the more
gentle teachings of the New, he always at least sought a warrant for
his actions in The Souldiers Pocket Bible, which every Ironside carried
in his holster.*
If Cromwell achieved nothing more than the laying the
foundations of that religious liberty which was re-established at the
Revolution in 1688, he deserves to be held in esteem by all lovers of
true religious and political freedom, such as Britain enjoys to-day.
His character and place in British politics are well described by the
late Principal Tulloch : ' Cromwell then was no hypocrite and no mere
enthusiast. He was simply the greatest Englishman of his time : the
most powerful, if not the most perfect expression of its religious spirit,
and the master-genius of its military and political necessities.' "
' ' The Souldiers Pocket Bible containing the most {if not all) those places contained in
holy Scripture ivhick doe shoiu the qualifications 0/ his inver man that is a fit souldicr to fight
the Lord's Battels both before the fight, in the fight, and after the fight, etc. London, 1643.'
' English Puritanism and its Leaders, 1 60.
56 THE COVENANTERS
Accession of Oti the acccssion of Richard Cromwell, a Parliament purged
^yg'j/'^Jg '""'' of Royalists assembled in January 1659, and was in May forced to
resign along with Richard.' The military faction invited the Rump
to assume session in May, but finding it too severe on their order,
turned it out of power again. The attempt of the military to govern
was a fiasco, and, finding affairs lapsing into chaos, they restored the
Rump to Westminster on 26th December 1659. During summer,
Sharp had been making himself so officious in London, that the
Government ordered him to cease meddling in public affairs, to return
to Scotland, and 'to keep within the compass of his own calling."-
Sharp was not to be suppressed. The influence of Wariston,
opponent of the toleration proposed to be granted to all kinds of
schismatics, and soon to be advanced to be President of the Committee
of Safety, was to be short-lived.
Monckopposes General Monck was taking a lively interest in all the perplexing
moves in England. The exiled King had been in communication
with Monck, but had failed to break down the gallant soldier's
allegiance to the Cromwells. Monck, however, after the death of
Richard Cromwell, and the usurpation of the officers in barring out
the Rump, felt himself called upon to interpose and redeem the
country from anarchy.' The sequel seems to indicate that he had a
secret aim which it was not opportune to divulge to any one. He
was the most reserved man living. He convened his officers in the
historic church of Greyfriars in Edinburgh and announced his
opposition to the English military party, and called for those willing
to join him to 'make the military power subservient to the civil.'
All offered him their swords. He next secured the Cromwellian
citadels and a loyal army. He issued declarations, which Sharp
helped him to frame, wherein he announced that he stood for popular
liberties and the freedom of Parliament.
' iJakcr, ChioH., 636 ct seq.
' 29th June 1659 : Add. AfSS., 231 13, f. 6g. ' 1659, Feb. 7. Mr. James Sharpe, Mr. of
Cvaill, tooke journey from Edinboroughe to London sent by the ministrie for the public
resolutions to withstand the actings of tlie protesters' : Lamont, C/iroit., 141.
' Baker, Chron., 651, 663 ; Heath, Chroti., 430 cl seq. ; Row, Blair, 339.
THE RULE OF THE IRONSIDES 57
On New Year's Day 1660, Monck crossed the Borders, andMonckat
Westminster*
marched with six thousand men on London, which he reached on
3rd February. He boldly walked between files of soldiers into West-
minster, and saw the Presbyterian members reseated who had been
excluded by Pride. Thus obtaining the desired majority, Monck
arranged for an early dissolution and for an appeal to the country
for the election of a free Parliament. On the rising of the Long
Parliament on i6th March, the first stage in the restoration of
monarchy began. ^ The Presbyterian party made the best use of the
time at their disposal to have the still unauthorised Confession of
Faith legalised. A committee was appointed to consider it, and two Confession
days later it was agreed to, with the exception of chapters thirty and ° ,^5^^
thirty-one, being finally placed in the Statute Book on 5th March 1660.
1660.^ This was the more readily agreed to since the Parliament
men considered the Confession to be a simple corollary to the Solemn
League and Covenant. The Solemn League and Covenant was also
ordered to be reprinted, read annually in all churches, and hung
up in Parliament House. This was the expiring effort, at this crisis,
of ill-fated Presbytery in England. The Restoration of the King
soon rendered these enactments inoperative. By agreeing to a
dissolution the Covenanters threw away the only chance they had
of reviving their unpopular cause in monarchical England. The
elections went for the Crown and King.
Monck, by his urbanity, had so ingratiated himself with the Monck and
Moderate party in the Church of Scotland, that their good wishes council! ^
and prayers followed him across the Borders. A few days after his
departure, David Dickson and Robert Douglas requested Monck to
permit James Sharp to accompany him and keep him informed of
ecclesiastical affairs. But Monck, who assured his correspondents
that the welfare of the Church was the object of his solicitude, had
already invited Sharp to London on a mission which was to be
mentioned to none but Douglas.^ Thus encouraged, the Resolu-
' Heath, 439 ; Baker, 677. ^ Coin. Jour., vii. S55, 862 ; Whitelocke, iv. 401.
2 Wodrow, i. 4 et seq. ; Row, Blair, 344 ; Correspondence of Mr. James Sharp with Mr.
VOL. II. H
58 THE COVENANTERS
tioners met in Edinburgh on 6th February, and drafted instructions
to their envoy, who was to advocate : —
(i) That the Church was to be guaranteed in her freedoms,
privileges, and legal judicatories.
(2) That lax toleration productive of sin and error should be
remedied.
(3) That the malversation of vacant stipends should cease.
(4) That ministers should enter into enjoyment of their stipends
and benefices by the Church's Act of Admission.
This memorandum was subscribed by Dickson, Douglas, Wood,
Smith, Hutchison, and the Clerk of Assembly, Andrew Ker.' The
Resolutioners also put themselves into touch with the Presbyterian
leaders in England.
Monck welcomed 'Mr. Sharp' . . . ' his good friend,' on 13th
February. Edward Calamy and other nonconformists also welcomed
him to London. Monck soon gave the Scots ministers to under-
stand that ' it shall be his care that the Gospel ordinances and
privileges of God's people may be established both here and there.'
This equivocal language gave rise to a vision of Presbytery, restored,
imperialised, glorified, by their new Joshua— ' called of God in a
Monck prefers Strait.' But when Monck, probably at the suggestion of Sharp,
isiirnof r'igki"' although Sharp disclaimed the idea, reinstated the secluded members
of Parliament in order to outvote the Rump, he plainly declared for
'Presbyterian government not rigid,' a differentiation which some-
what blurred the vision of Douglas and the other restorers of Presby-
tery then allied to Monck. These enthusiasts failed to comprehend
wherein the rigid nature of Presbyterianism should make it unpopular
and undesirable, and wrote Sharp to this effect. Sharp and Monck
understood each other. Reading between the lines, and with the
light thrown from subsequent events, one cannot fail to perceive that
Sharp was early cognisant of the hatching of a policy which would
take his co-presbyters by surprise. What other could it be than the
Robert Douglas, David Dickson, etc., in the year i66o, in Glasgow University Library. Press
mark, BE. 8, d. 18. » Wodrow, i. 5.
THE RULE OF THE IRONSIDES 59
entire discarding of their ' rigid ' religious system ? However, it is
difficult to determine the exact date on which Sharp abandoned the
idea, if he ever cherished it, that a King pledged to the Covenant was
the only panacea for the national distemper. His constant assevera-
tions that he was a genuine Presbyter, and that Lauderdale was no
Episcopalian, ill harmonise with the agility he soon afterwards dis-
played in leaping into prelatic place and power. In his long corre-
spondence with Douglas, Sharp gave a partial and prejudiced account
of current affairs in the Capital, always contriving to leave out, as if
unknown or unimportant, those facts which were indicators of the
hidden movements of the friends of Episcopacy and the exiled King.
His written memoranda are equivocal and difficult to interpret.
Sharp reported that it was hinted that if the Parliament rose
without securing religion, then ' the King would come in without
terms,' that moderate Episcopalians were coming to the front, and
the populace was demanding the return of the King. In these circum-
stances Sharp thought that some of the Scots prisoners, who had
been released on the advent of Monck, such as Crawford and Lauder-
dale, should be retained in London as representatives of Scotland.
Monck had not yet shown his hand. Sharp endeavoured to work
Douglas into a state of nervousness by informing him that the author-
■ ities reckoned the Resolutioners also to be republican and disloyal,
and that Douglas's republished sermon, delivered at the Scone
coronation, was being received with disfavour. Douglas and his
associates wished to send special delegates to Monck and the Parlia-
ment to confer on the crisis. Sharp then desired to be recalled, but, sharp's nego-
in a subsequent letter, 5th April, he reported that Monck was averse J.'^'^j^J™^ ^""^
to Commissioners being sent — Lauderdale and the emancipated Scots,
in Monck's opinion, being able enough advocates of the Cause. He
further mentioned Monck's distrust of the Remonstrants, and his
promise, ' if we be quiet, our business would be done to our mind ' ;
and, what staggered Douglas and his friends, Monck's avowal that
none but Sharp would gain his confidence. To further hoodwink
these simple believers, Sharp narrated how a trusty party of
6o THE COVENANTERS
Presbyterian clergy, with Lauderdale and himself, met and came to
an agreement as to the Restoration of the King on Covenant lines.^
As a correspondent, Sharp seemed to be quite transparent and honest,
as Mr. Andrew Lang would have us believe." But Sharp never told
the half of what he knew, and the other half he couched in oracular
terms. After mentioning how Monck would not let him depart, how
the King knew every move and Scotland's affection, how the King was
on the eve of returning, to the joy of Presbyterians, and how the very
Episcopalians were humbly seeking an accommodation from the Pres-
byterians, Sharp thus sums up the matter (7th April) : ' The Lord
having opened a fair door of hope, we may look for a settlement upon
the grounds of the Covenant, and thereby a foundation laid for security
against the prelatic and fanatic assaults ; but I am dubious if this shall
be the result of the agitations now on foot.' The sly diplomatist did
not inform his masters what he expected and was working for. He
adjured them to make no approach to the King till the King came,
warned them against Middleton's design, and blamed Murray's mission
to the King. To throw them off the true scent he confessed by the way :
' I smell that moderate episcopacy is the fairest accommodation, which
moderate men who wish well to religion expect ... we (the Scots)
shall be left to the King, which is best for us.' ^ The Resolutioners
realising the peril, the more that they now knew how tired of rigid
Presbytery the youth of Scotland were, let Sharp understand that
Episcopacy was the prelude to prelatic tyranny, and that if the King
would not accept their conditions they undeterred would maintain
their Covenanted rights.
Triumph of All this time Charles and Chancellor Hyde were exerting them-
Hyde's selves, bv communicatino- with sympathisers in England, to create a
diplomacy. •' & / r o
public feeling in favour of the Restoration, and in this they succeeded
so well that, before the Convention Parliament met on 25th April,
the King had formulated his terms of settlement. On 4th April he
signed the Declaration of Breda, wherein he offered a general pardon
to all except to those whom Parliament might exempt, promised to
» Wodrow, i. 18. ^ Hist. Scot., iii. 284. ' Wodrow, i. 20.
THE RULE OF THE IRONSIDES 6i
allow Parliament to settle possible disputes over confiscated estates,
and, in a word, invited Parliament to specify the terms of his return
to the Throne. On receipt of this document on May-day, Parliament
resolved that, ' according to the ancient and fundamental laws of the
kingdom, the government is, and ought to be, by Kings, Lords, and
Commons.' As far as England was concerned the Puritan Revolution
was at an end. The faithful Hyde at length had triumphed.
Sharp had no little share in bringing about this consummation, sharp's share
Both Monck and Douglas, and, according to Blair, the ministers jn Jj'^*^ ^"'°'^"
London also, requested him to go and interview the King in exile.
Before Douglas had an opportunity to send Sharp fresh instructions
on that point, Sharp had assumed the function of a legate and crossed
the Channel to negotiate for the Church, and in its name. Sharp must
have been sure of his ground before he took such an unwarrantable
liberty. Since the release of the Scots nobles Charles had been in
communication with them, writing to Lauderdale ' as entirely my
owne,' as his royal father had done twenty-one years before, con-
gratulating him on his release from prison, and also trusting him
to raise a Royalist party. Sharp was in their secrets. That rake,
Rothes, owned him as ' our caynd, honist, Sherp Frend ' who among
other ministers was ' not to be compared uithe.' ^ Lauderdale, there-
fore, entrusted his reply to his Sovereign to Sharp, therein informing
the King that ' God hath made him [Sharp] as happy ane instrument
in your Service all along as any I know of his country. . . . Nor need
I say anything by so knowing a bearer, who is employed by him
[Monck] who under God hath done this worke to give you a full
account of those great transactions which layd the foundacion of this
happiness we are now I hope so neir.' - In fine, Sharp was a secret
envoy for Monck. The Earl of Glencairn went even further, accord-
ing to Burnet, and recommended Sharp to Hyde ' as the only person
capable to manage the design of setting up Episcopacy in Scotland.'^
' Airy, Laud. Pap., i. lo.
' Additional MS S., 231 13, fol. 100 ; Laud. Pap., i. 24.
' Hist., i. 165 ; Wodrow, i. 28.
62 THE COVENANTERS
Monck, a Monck was too wary to trust himself to a proved knave like
plotter. Sharp, and employed his own cousin, Sir John Grenville, to convey
his message to the King, verbatim, after Monck had repeated it
several times in the hearing of Grenville. His advice was embodied
in the Declaration of Breda. While on his way to Breda Sharp wrote
to his friend Wood, cryptic, equivocal, and lugubrious letters confessing
how he was passing through distractions and a toilsome life.^ He
longed to be home. He had five interviews with the King, and,
according to Douglas, he utilised these to prove that ' he was a great
Resoiutioners enemy to the Presbyterian interest.'" On that very day on which
thrKtHg."'^ Sharp had his first interview with Charles, 8th May, Douglas and the
brethren in Edinburgh penned a petition to the King, in which they
rejoiced at his proposed restoration, and urging him not to repent of
taking the Covenant and its pledge to maintain the Church. Douglas
insisted on Sharp telling the King that Scotland was pledged to the
Establishment, and that only ' naughty men ' desired toleration. A
few days after this, in a hyper-excited state of joy, they wrote to
Charles 'as the man of God's right hand,' congratulating him on his
recent profession of adherence to the Reformed Faith and on his
moderation. In a letter from Brussels, loth April, Charles professed
this adherence, and vindicated himself from the charge of leading a
vicious life.^ This letter, transmitted by Rothes, was burked by
Sharp, who treacherously had effected his purpose before his orders
reached him. In his account of his mission. Sharp stated with
verbosity and vagueness that ' he found his Majesty resolved to
restore the kingdom to its former civil liberties, and to preserve the
settled government of our church ' ; and that the King refrained from
prosecuting uniformity, as it ' would be a most disgustful employment
and successless,' since he knew that ' there was no English party for
uniformity.'' Charles, he wrote, was much improved by his afflictions.
To these precisians this counted for sanctity. If his spiritual con-
dition needed an illustration, it was afforded by Mr. Case, one of the
» Add. MSS., 231 13, fol. 103. 2 Wodrow, i. 28.
* Wodrow MSS., xxxii. 5. ■• Wodrow, i. ^o.
THE RULE OF THE IRONSIDES 63
deputation of ministers from London who also visited Charles. He
declared that he was taken where he might, by eavesdropping, hear
the royal saint at his devotions. He heard him groaning and sayinor :
' Lord, since thou art pleased to restore me to the throne of my
ancestors, grant me a heart constant in the exercise and protection
of thy true Protestant religion.' This trick of a scarcely disguised
Papist was worse than the travesty of religion witnessed at Scone.
64 THE COVENANTERS
CHAPTER XX
THE RESTORATION
Charles, exalted from beggary to kingship, left Holland amid
demonstrations of joy, and landed at Dover on 25th May 1660.
There the jubilant ministers proffered him a clasped Bible ; victorious
Monck as appropriately offered him his sword. His progress towards
and entry into London resembled a Roman triumph. Indeed, Evelyn
declared it was like the return of the Jews from Babylon. He
entered the Capital on 29th May — his thirtieth birthday. That night,
when the jubilation and racket had ceased, and the godly were in
prayer bearing up their Covenanted Monarch at the Throne of Grace,
he first made an oblation of thanks to God in the presence-chamber
before seeking carnal repose within the arms of the beautiful adulteress,
Barbara Villiers.^ He thus early inaugurated England's worst era of
lust and falsehoods.
On realising the Restoration of the King, the people became
frantic with joy, and soon their hilarity degenerated into ribaldry
amid scenes of drunkenness and immorality."
Popular joy at In Edinburgh a day of thanksgiving — 19th June — was appointed,
the Restora- ^^^ Restoration Day was observed with sermons, noises hallowed
and unhallowed, feasting, and strong drink. A farce in fireworks was
presented on the Castle Hill, and redoubtable Cromwell was depicted
being pursued by the Devil till both were blown up, to the merriment
of the crowds.'
Later, on Coronation Day, the otherwise staid magistrates of
Edinburgh converted the area round the Cross into a bacchanalian
* Kirkton, 61. She bore six children to Charles : Burnet, i. 168 .and note (Airy's edit.)-
' Burnet, i. i66 ; Clarendon, Con/., 36-8. ^ Nicoll, 294.
tion.
John, first Karl of Traquair
John, sixth Earl of Rolhes
Sir George McKenzie of Rosehaugh
Archibald, Marquis of Argyll
General Tiiomas Dal)ell
Archbishop Laud Bishop Leighton
ROYALIST AXD COVENANTING LEADERS
THE RESTORATION 65
paradise, in which Bacchus, Silenus, and other bibulous divinities and
wanton goddesses held court and revel, and the magistrates acted like
coryphees in this fantastic vineyard. The mad orgy was prolonged
until the citizens became 'not only drunk but frantic,' and worse.^
As vultures swoop on a carcase, the needy Scots nobility and
hungry unemployed soldiers of fortune made for London to welcome
Charles, and to present petitions asking for the removal of the
English garrison, the restoration of forfeited estates, the resuscitation
of privileges, and patronage in view of other attainders.^
At Crawford's levee Charles gave them a pleasant reception.
Fortune now smiled on the Engagers, since the other extreme parties
in the State— Montrosians and Argyllians — were defunct. Sharp, too,
remained in London negotiating, as he would make his colleagues
believe. Burton, I think, rightly interpreted the intentions of the
new authorities when he wrote : ' While all these things were written,
Sharp was Archbishop of St. Andrews and virtually Primate of
Scotland. It was believed, indeed [he should have added "soon
afterwards "], that the bargain was struck at once when he arrived at
Breda.'* On 2nd June, the Primate-elect wrote to Douglas that insharppUys
London he found ' the presbyterian cause wholly given up and lost,' tioners false
while the leaders of that party were willing to accept a modified J""« '^^•
Episcopacy after Ussher's model, with an amended liturgy and
curtailed ceremonies.'' 'The cassock men swarm here,' he averred.
He continued discouraging the sending up of more delegates,
Douglas excepted — he had hopes of Douglas apostatising — on the
ground that it would 'give suspicion of driving a disobliging design.'
He disclaimed any personal manoeuvre. Douglas and his friends,
instead of falling into the net, became fixed in their resolutions, and
' Edinburgh's Joy for His Majesties Coronation in England^ 1661 ; Kirkton, 65 ; Crook-
shanks, 81.
"' Kirkton, 66 ; Laud. Pap., i. 32-3. ' Hist., vii. 134.
■* Hallam, Const. Hist., ii. 319 : 'This consisted, first, in the appointment of a suffragan
bishop for each rural deanery, holding a monthly Synod of the presbyters within his district ;
and, secondly, in an annual diocesan Synod of suffragans and representatives of the
presbyters, under the presidency of Uie bishop, and deciding upon all matters before them by
a plurality of suffrages.'
VOL. II. I
66 THE COVENANTERS
more emphatically advised him to oppose the defections, prelacy, and
the liturgy. It is not likely that Sharp repeated these instructions.
When Douglas was bent on coming south, Sharp as firmly and
plausibly discountenanced the proposed advocacy, declaring that the
King was against it, since he was pledged to Presbytery already, and
their advent would prejudice the cause. By these concoctions he
kept them in their fool's paradise. His tactics were clever but dis-
honourable. In the middle of June he writes : ' Discerning men see
that the gale is like to blow for the prelatic party, and those who are
sober will yield to a liturgy and moderate episcopacy which they
phrase to be effectual presbytery." This was a specious fly well cast.
This equation of ' effectual presbytery ' explains the frequent boast of
Sharp after he came to be suspected, that he ' had done more for the
interest of presbyterian government than any minister who can accuse
me.'^ The peculiarity of Sharp's letters is that, while prolix, they do
not contain, except in his paraphrase, the substantial communications
which he must have been receiving from others. On 19th June,
when the Scottish deputation was imminent, he wrote that the King
was about to grant all their demands — their wildest dream — and with
the royal letter he would come home. It was a mean trick to hold
back the deputies. While trying to make his brethren discard the
chimera of uniformity, be it said to his credit, he declared, ' If we
knew how little our interests are regarded by the most part here, we
would not much concern ourselves in theirs.' It was probably on
this principle that Sharp, while narrating the various moves for the
restoration of prelacy and moderate Episcopacy, and even the fact
that the Royalists attributed the King's misfortunes to his acquiescence
in Presbytery, omitted to mention that the Commissioners from Ire-
land thought it expedient to drop, in their negotiations, all mention of
the Covenant and prelacy. "
Monck, created Duke of Albemarle in July, was no politician,
yet he had the shrewdness to advise his Sovereign to select both
' Sharp to Dnimmond, i3lh December 1660 : Laud. Pii/)., i. 47.
- Keid, Hist, of Pres. Church in Ireland, ii. 334-6.
THE RESTORATION 67
Cavaliers and Presbyterians for his new Privy Council. In Chancellor The office of
Hyde the King possessed a Grand Vizier adept in statecraft and ^ '''
capable of anticipating and executing unswervingly the royal will.
Hyde had the gift of selecting trustworthy subordinates to carry
out the meanest policy. In this uncompromising Episcopalian and
Monarchist, Charles had an effective agent in executing the terms of
the Declaration of Breda, so that soon the short-lived Convention
Parliament set an example to successive legislatures of the way to
dishonour the regicides, alive or dead, in their enactments and even
in their persons.
Considering his past career, Argyll would have appeared hypo-
critical had he been an early visitant to Court. Yet, anxious to stand
well with his Sovereign, Argyll, much against the advice of Douglas
and other friends, sought the King's presence in the hope that in a
personal interview Charles would accept his explanations for his
apparent discourtesy and his disloyalty under the Cromwellian regime.
There are discrepant accounts of the origin of the visit. According
to some he went of his own accord ; to others that Charles invited
him ; to still others that Lome, being well received, was used as a
decoy to the trap, having informed his father that there was no
danger.' Sharp warned Douglas that the King would receive Argyll The arrest of
badly. Lauderdale, now Secretary of State, was not averse to the "^
extinction of his new rival, if he had not already determined on
vengeance for his old enemy. Consequently, when Argyll appeared
in the presence-chamber the King had him promptly arrested there
in circumstances which betokened a public affront. From the Tower
he was conveyed by ship, along with Judge Swinton, down to Scot-
land to be tried for treason. He arrived at Leith on 20th December
and was thrown into Edinburgh Castle. A similar warrant was sent
to Major-General Morgan to seize Sir James Stewart, Provost of
Edinburgh, Sir John Chiesley of Carsewell, and Lord Wariston.
Wariston escaped to the Continent for a time. This was a foretaste
• Fr.iser, /vet/ Book of Grami/ully, ii. 151 ; Argyll Papers, 17 ; Mackenzie, Memoirs, 13 ;
Willcock, The Great Marquess. 302 note : Unmet, i. 193.
68 THE COVENANTERS
of the arbitrary government which the country was to experience for
twenty-eight years.
The King re- The first care of Charles was to have a government reconstituted
Government in foi* Scotland/ The following appointments were made : Middleton,
Scotland. Commissioner to Parliament and Generalissimo ; Glencairn, Chan-
cellor ; Lauderdale, Secretary ; Rothes, President of Council ; Craw-
ford, Treasurer; Sir William Fleming, then Primrose, Clerk- Register.
Lauderdale chose Sharp's brother, William, to be his secretary — a
fateful appointment. This Council was meant to be a domestic one,
associated with Hyde and other English statesmen close to the person
of the King. The Committee of Estates, nominated in 1651, which
Monck swept away from Alyth, was indicted to meet in Edinburgh
on 23rd August, and to form a provisional government till Parliament
should assemble. This Committee had limitless powers."
While all former attempts at effecting a reconciliation between the
Resolutioners and Remonstrants and Protesters had failed, the
sinister reports and intrigues of Sharp helping to widen the gulf
between them, the Protesters, after a final effort to induce the
Resolutioners to join them in presenting an address of welcome to
the King, resolved to make it on their own account. On the requisi-
tion of five ministers, James Guthrie, Trail, and others, they met at
Edinburgh in the house of Robert Simpson, on the same day (23rd
Protesters met August) on which the Committee of Estates assembled. The Privy
King are Council declared the meeting to be an unwarrantable and illegal con-
arrested, 23rd yocation tendingf to sedition and the rekindling^ of civil war, and three
August 1660. _ " _ ^
times ordered them to disperse. On their refusal, soldiers were
dispatched to seize them and their papers and lodge them in the
Castle. They apprehended James Guthrie of Stirling; Robert
Trail, Edinburgh ; John Stirling, Edinburgh ; Alexander Moncrieff,
Scone; George Nairn, Burntisland; Gilbert Hall, Kirkliston; John
Murray, Methven ; John Scott, Oxnam ; John Semple, Carsphairn ;
' Mackenzie's History is valuable here. According to a letter of Mackenzie to Lauderdale
of date 1673, the first part of the book was revised by Lauderdale : IVoiirpw MSS., xxxii. 212
Advocates' Library.
- Privy Couficil Rfi^isler : Acfa 1661-7, MSS, in Register House, Edinburgh.
THE RESTORATION 69
Gilbert Ramsay, Mordington, ministers ; and Kirko of Sandywell,
Dunscore, an elder. They were committed to close prison in
Edinburgh Castle. Robert Row, Abercorn, William Wishart,
Kinneil, left the meeting before the soldiers arrived, and Andrew-
Hay of Craignethan escaped capture.'
A Supplication, seized at their capture, testifies that their inten-
tions were harmless and praiseworthy. Loyally they congratulated
Charles on his restoration, totally banned the regicides and their acts,
including toleration, warned him of popery, prelacy, and prayer-books,
prayed him to preserve the Scottish Church, craved him to own and
make all others own the Covenant and the Westminster Standards.
They concluded by praying that his piety would make him ' a king
with all the virtues of all the godly kings of Israel.' The innocents did
not know Charles, nor his abettors." Glencairn and his fellows read
treason into the document at once. The prisoners maintained that
the printing of their Supplication would convince the public that their
aims were laudable, and they petitioned to be relieved, promising to
fall away from their Remonstrance of 1650. From his cell, Stirling
wrote to his kirk-session : ' Yet this is my comfort that whatever the
world say or believe, the cause I suffer for is the Lord's, and no less
than the avowintj of his marriagfe contract in a sworn covenant
betwixt the three kingdoms.'^ To prevent other contemplated Severities of
assemblies the Committee of Estates issued another illegal proclama- "'^
tion, 24th August, prohibiting under highest pains all meetings, con-
venticles, and seditious papers unauthorised by the Crown. Victims
were next singled out for punishment. During September, John
Graham, Provost of Glasgow, John Spreul, town clerk there, Patrick
Gillespie, Principal of Glasgow University, John Jaffray, Provost of
Aberdeen, and William Wishart, minister of Kinneil, were thrown
into jail. Gillespie and Guthrie were carried off to Stirling Castle
into safest custody.
' Lamont, 158 ; Row, Blair, 357 ; Nicoll, 298 ; Mackenzie, 16 : Act. Privy Council, 23rd
August 1660. - Wodrow, i. 68-71.
' nth September 1660: Wodrow, i. 73 note.
70 THE COVENANTERS
Return of At this vcry junctuFC Sharp returned from his mission. Although
we find him in December informing his clerical correspondent in
London, Patrick Drummond, that he had pleaded for Guthrie and
his fellows in misfortune, this boast is not in harmony with the im-
placable hatred he evinced towards the Remonstrants in his letters to
Lauderdale, wherein he urged Lauderdale to take extreme measures
against the ' hairbrain ' rebels. He rendered Guthrie's petition inept
by asserting that Guthrie not only justified the murder of the King, but
proclaimed that Scotland's revulsion from the deed was a sin. A
little later he practically recommended to Lauderdale the extinction
of these ' leading impostors, Guthiree, Gillespy, Rutherford, which
will daunt the rest of the hotheads who in time may be beat into
sound minds and sober practises.' ^ Sharp knew this was palat-
able counsel to his patron and master, to his peer in treachery and
deceit. For years Lauderdale had disdained to look upon the
extreme Covenanters as worthy to be reckoned Scotsmen.'
Lauderdale's regard for Presbyterianism, and the Covenants which
he subscribed, was now merely the memory of the obsolete faith of his
callow youth. Through dark days he had clung to his early love, but
on the advent of regal splendour and pleasure, that affection sickened
and died in a heart which had grown corrupt. He actually told
Burnet that he had recommended Presbytery to the King, who replied,
'x\\^ volte fate 'let that go, for it was not a religion for a gentleman. '^ Lauderdale
would be a loyal gentleman ; and, after that rebuff, Presbytery to him
was a mere temporary political expedient to be cast out whenever
it suited the King. Since no solitary fiat could in a trice obliterate
the Free Scottish Constitution — Church and State — Charles needed
complotters in his nefarious design. The vision of an archiepiscopal
throne glamoured the Judas of the Covenant, and a greed for pelf,
power, and the pleasures which these can procure entangled the
vulgar Lauderdale. Charles had got both rogues in the hollow of his
hand.
' Lmicl. Pap; i. 41, 57, 59, App. Ixx. -' Add. MSS., 231 14, fol. 84.
3 //is/., i. 195.
THE RESTORATION 71
In the royal closet the trio completed a plan, the first detail of The plan of
,-. , c -If 1 01 the treacherous
which was a letter to be borne to the King s Scottish lieges by Sharp, trio.
This royal missive, dated 'At Whitehall, the loth of August 1660,'
signed ' Lauderdale,' was addressed to Robert Douglas and to the
Presbytery of Edinburgh. The crafty document began by assuring
the Presbyters that Sharp had loyally executed his mission, and fully
explained the ecclesiastical situation. It animadverted on some
disloyal brethren, of course hinting at the Protesters and extremists
generally, without considering that Sharp too had, as already narrated,
supported Cromwell and taken the Tender. No mention was made
of the Covenant. With studied craft the royal intentions regarding
the Church were expressed thus : ' We do also resolve to protect and
preserve the government of the Church of Scotland, as it is settled
by law, without violation,' as well as the ministry living peaceably,
' as becomes men of their calling.' The joyful receivers did not per-
ceive the quirk which Sir George Mackenzie afterwards pointed
out : ' When Episcopacy was restored and this letter objected by
the Presbyterians, it was answered, that before the restoration of
Episcopacy all the acts whereby Episcopacy was abrogated or
presbyterial government asserted, were annulled by the Act Rescis-
sory ; so that Episcopacy being the only church government then
established by law, his Majesty was by that letter obliged to own it.' *
The letter further owned the legislation of the Assembly (of St.
Andrews and Dundee) in 1651, promised another Assembly, adjured
the Church courts to attend to ecclesiastical business only (then, as
if pointing directly to the Protesters and anti-Prelatists), while
stamping out conventicles — the seedplots of disaffection — and invited
the Church to pray God to give the King ' fresh and constant supplies
of His grace.'' If the Devil ever appeared as an angel of light
to the unsophisticated, he did so then in Charles. The jubilant
Presbyters enshrined the letter in a silver casket. On 3rd September
copies of it were transmitted to other Presbyteries. The rude,
mercenary Middleton, who knew the intention of Charles to establish
' Memoirs, i6. '■* Wodrow, i. 80-4.
72 THE COVENANTERS
Episcopacy, flouted Sharp tor this trick, and could never get over its
meanness.' To Primrose ' he spake often of it with great indigna-
tion, since it seemed below the dignity of a king thus to equivocate
with his people, and to deceive them.'^ Sharp, however, somewhat
mollified Middleton by declaring that the letter was only a temporary
expedient, and that the King could be relieved of his promise when-
ever the existing establishment was abolished. It was. and was
intended to be, a base incitement to clerical persecutors.
Churchmen These Presbytcrians prepared a gracious address to their ruler,
fubibm ^" subscribed by thirty-two ministers, in which they confessed how
much their spirits had been revived by his royal intentions, and they
transmitted it along with a grateful letter to Lauderdale, whom they
still reckoned to be as dutiful a son of ' our Mother Church ' as he
was that day he stood a penitent in Largo Church.^ The Synod of
Lothian also blessed the King for his favours. While the dominant
party in the Church was considering what steps might be taken with
their own recalcitrant brethren, the Committee of Estates was forging
new fetters for both discredited parties. On 19th September a
proclamation was published calling in all copies of Rutherford's Lex
Rex and Guthrie's Causes of Gods Wraths as works poisonous and
treasonable, with certification that refusers would be held to be
enemies of the King, and punishable according to the Committee's
discretion. The executive government wished no aftermath of horrid
reminiscences. The tombs of Henderson in the Greyfriars' Church-
yard, and of George Gillespie in Kirkcaldy, had their inscriptions
erased.'' In another proclamation a wider net was spread to catch
all injudicious critics of the authorities, and to silence glib pulpiteers,
' Laud. Pap., ii. App. Ixxviii. : .Sharp to Middleton, 2isl May 1661.
' Burnet, i. 198. ■' Wodrow, i. 83.
^ Mackenzie, 17. NicoU, 373-9, records the defacement at a later date; 'For . . . Mr.
Alexander Hendirsone, minister at Edinburgh, a learned and pious man, depairttit this lyff
upon the 18 day of August 1646. Efter quhais death thair wes ane monument or sepulcher
erectit with ane pyramite abone the sepulcher, to his honor and commendation, bot withall,
a relatioun to the League and Couenant, ingrauen in great letters hewin out of stone ; quhilkis
letters wer all hewit doun and blottit out by ordour of the Estaites of Parliament now sitting
in Edinburgh in Junii 1662.' The Cromwcllian citadels were also speedily demolished.
THE RESTORATION 73
satirical rhymers, scurrilous rakers of unpalatable tales, sympathisers inquisition
with the Remonstrance, listeners who failed to report libellers, and p^^;^^ (-^yn^ii
orators outside the lawful courts of Church and State.* The mesh inspired by
was small enough to catch the least that had an idea of his own.
Every hearer was a catchpole to entrap his pastor. Dates were
immaterial. A hair was made a tether of. Words once feeble
enough appeared treasonable in an official 'hue and cry.' An uncon-
stitutional inquisition was thus sprung upon the exhausted country.
A reign of terror began. Great men tried to protect the little.
Eglinton writes to Lauderdale craving pardon for one Ralston,
probably a vassal, 'for he is a very pretty man.'- Every suspect,
when disowning the Remonstrance, had to produce a substantial
cautioner. The sermons of John Dickson, Rutherglen, James
Naismith, Hamilton, and James Simpson, Airth, brought these
honest men to jail. This Act of Silencing struck equally at Remon-
strants, Protesters, and Resolutioners — meddlers in the affairs of
State. Colonels Barclay and Ker preferred flight and ostracism to
the tender mercies of the inquisitors. Wariston, for whom a reward
of five thousand merks was offered, sought a refuge on the Continent.
Not to be foiled in his scheme, Lauderdale sent down another
proclamation, 12th October, referring to a Parliament to be convened
in order to assert the royal prerogative, and to be constituted as the
final judge of the conduct of the lieges. The sting was at the end :
no subject was to ' presume to go out of the country, without licence
of the Committee of the Estates, under pain of being esteemed and
pursued as a contemner of our authority.' In the autumn the bench
was packed with Royalists. The King's prerogative was the substi-
tute for the Covenant, and the new touchstone to effect everything.
Corrupt officials began to scent fines and forfeitures, while poverty Reason
produced many parasites content with the leavings of these persecut- persecutions.
ing extortioners. To this fact can be traced clearly the motives for
the inhuman prosecution of the Covenanters. Many landed gentry
' 20th September 1660: 'A Proclamation against all seditious railers,' etc.
» AM. MSS., 231 1 1, fol. 66: October 1660.
VOL. II. K
Sharp.
74 THE COVENANTERS
were summoned before the Committee of Estates, and were forced
to sign bonds for their good behaviour.
Sharp partly The tortuous couTsc which Sharp continued to pursue in order
enigma. ^^ rehabiHtate the Scots Church on a basis of usefulness and
influence, according to his own conception of the function of the
Church, is now easily explained by means of the Lauderdale Papers}
Sharp's letters prove that he had the gift of hiding his ideas and
intentions in copious language which seemed to reveal them. He
could express a superfine distinction which an ordinary mind would
not have noticed. They also prove that Sharp, dissimulator, liar,
and traitor, well styled by Patrick Walker ' a compound of wicked-
ness,' was not without a politic aim. I entirely homologate Mr. Dodds
in this conclusion of his estimate of Sharp : ' For well-concocted, cold-
blooded, systematic dissimulation, he stands almost without a match
Views of in history.'^ Nevertheless, what in March 1661 he confessed to his
correspondent, Patrick Drummond, seems to have been a conception
of long standing, that Presbytery had a foundation in Scripture, but
that Scottish Presbytery was not ex jure divino? He could not
conscientiously affirm with his co-prelate Leighton, that forms of
government and ceremonies were merely human, happy expedients,
and that the hierarchy might, with advantage to Church and State,
retire altogether.'* Nor could he quite brook the purely Erastian
conception that the King was head of the Church, which was merely
a bureau of the State. Ten years after he had ascended the Episcopal
throne he protested to Lauderdale that he had never been in ' the
habitude of parting by my own consent with the rights of the episcopal
order which have been ever acknowledged by the Christian Church.'^
He convinced himself that he had the part of a patriotic reformer
' These papers in twenty-six volumes are preserved in the liritisli Museum. I have
consulted the originals. They consist of letters, reports, petitions, and memoranda which
Lauderdale received while he was Secretary. A selection of them have been ably edited by
Mr. Osmund Airy for the Camden Society, 1884. A large transcript of Sharp's letters is
preserved in Edinburgh University Library. In (ilasgow University copies of a few letters
exist : press mark BE. 8, d. 18.
= The Fifty Years' Struggle, 99. = Laud. Pap., i. 88.
* Leighton to Lauderdale, gth Nov. 1673 : ibid., ii. 238. * Ibid., ii. 215.
THE RESTORATION 75
to play in ' restoring the King's interest to its lustre in Scotland '
by removing the Church's encroachments in civilibus, and restoring
what the Crown had evacuated in ecclesiasticis. He could well say,
' I am a Scot and a Presbyter,' if he believed in the primitive
equation of bishop and presbyter, as scholars do now.' He claimed
spiritual independence for the Church, and the right of the Church, in
Assembly met, to make and alter her own polity. He disclaimed any
personal intention of transforming Presbytery into Diocesan Episco-
pacy, but asserted the right of the Church to arrange the conditions
of the inter-relationship of regal authority and ecclesiastical jurisdic-
tion. He desired a reference to a General Assembly." The sequel
compels one to imagine that this professed gospeller after the
primitive model, all the same, had his tongue in his cheek while he
was writing : ' Whatever lot I may meet with I scorne to prostitute
my conscience and honesty to base unbecoming allurements,' such
as a crozier, mitre, and throne ! ^ With Charles, Lauderdale, and
Royalists generally, he abhorred extreme Presbyterians, Protesters,
and suchlike, whom he designated impostors venting ' antimagis-
tratical and pernitious principles ' and devoid of ' reason and under-
standing.' Douglas never suspected that his envoy had prelatical
leanings, and the moderate Covenanters entrusted to Sharp the
realisation of their most hallowed hopes. His error lay in concealing Sharp's sin,
h^.i. ... . ., ... , . ambition.
IS predilections ; his crime, in cunnmgly executing his predetermina-
tion. His fall was not gradual, but was the quick result of his
predetermination. We must admit that he had an ambition to serve
and save the Church. Of quick wit and of open eyes and ears.
Sharp could not fail to observe the low morale of King, courtiers, and
country. The aristocracy made no secret of hating the disciplinary
Church and rigid ministry, while legislators made religion subservient
to private interests. He was convinced that Parliament-men aimed
at humiliating the clergy to beggary, slavery, and contempt, against
which, having no representation in the Government, they had no
' Add. MSS., 231 14, fol. 94 ; J.aud. Pap., i. 50. 2 /^^^ p^,p \ ^3.
s Ibid., i. 50.
76 THE COVENANTERS
redress. As it was, pastoral livings were sublimated away and juris-
diction was ineffective. There was another danger which he must
o
have noted — five thousand Papists had swarmed into Scotland on
the downfall of the Commonwealth and the return of Charles.' But
there is no evidence to show that Sharp might also have abjured
Protestantism and become a Papist. Unconscious of his own weak-
ness and inability to stem the rising tide, Sharp may have become
one of those obstructionists out of whom Lauderdale said he would
drive the conceit. Without the genius of Mazarin to outmanceuvre
the King's secular advisers, Sharp condescended to deception, and
simply incited his fellow-conspirators, who were still more clever at
Sharp's alter- dissembHug, to use him as one knave to foil others. When the
supreme crisis came in 1660, Sharp had one out of three choices to
make : to throw in his lot with the Church in her ultramontane,
bureaucratic, or Erastian form. The Church might be (i) rehabilitated
in prestige and spiritual independence under Presbytery and its
parties, divisive and internecine ; or (2) reconstituted as a department
of State under the control of Parliament, in which the pastors had
no seats (for the seculars in the Estates did not care for clerical
colleagues) ; or (3) re-established as a fief of the Crown and subject
to the Sovereign's will alone. When the choice was between the rule
of the many, of the select few, and of one. Sharp thought that the
jurisdiction of the King was the safest — safest too for himself His
choice he afterwards, with other bishops, gratefully called the ' settle-
ment of this Church upon its ancient basis.' ^
Earl of Middle- On Hogmanay night 1660, a night of national carnival, John,
°"'' ' ' first Earl of Middleton,^ with Doctor James Sharp, his chaplain, took
up residence in Holyrood House. On the morrow this counterfeit
of a noble, a mercenary hungry for forfeitures, was to represent the
King on the throne of Scotland in its Parliament. The Capital
' Laud. Pap., i. 170.
' Bishops to King, 12th September 1662 : Hist. MSS. Com. Rep., IX. ii. 446.
' Son of John Middleton, proprietor of Caldhame, Marykirk, killed by the soldiers of
Montrose in 1645 as he sat in his chair: Fraser, Laurencekirk , 55; Jervise, Mtm. Aug.,
ii. 154.
THE RESTORATION 11
was throno^ed with the needy — with bankrupt landlords, deprived First Restora-
. . , ,, • V u J tionParlia-
ministers, restored exiles, weeping widows, all swearing they had ^^^^^ jst
suffered for the Crown and clamouring for compensation, which many J^""^''>' '^^'
got out of the estates of their ecclesiastical opponents. The Estates
in all splendour rode up the Canongate with the ancient Honours,
now restored from their romantic place of burial. Again Douglas
was the preacher, and his inaugural sermon, based on the text
(2 Chron. xix. 6), 'Take heed what ye do; for ye judge not for man,
but for the Lord, who is with you in the Judgment,' must have
sounded as a jest in the ears of that unprincipled convention. There
the bankrupt legislators sat in purple and fine linen, in fur and
feather, all anxious till their petitions for ratification of their lands and
honours should be granted by the Crown. ' Never any parliament
was so obsequious to all that was proposed to them,' wrote Mackenzie,^
for, ' tamed into a slavish subjection by the usurpers, they were
ashamed to allow less power to their own king.' Baillie corroborated
this fact, stating ' The parliament's pulse was quickly felt : for when
Cassilis moved that the election of president should be by vote of
parliament, the Commissioner obtained that the Chancellor should
preside by virtue of his office, as before it wont to be.'" Glencairn,
a reliable courtier, accordingly took the chair. Subscription of the
Covenant, exacted by former Parliaments, was not demanded.^
Middleton's instructions under fourteen heads were explicit — to Middieton's
, . , . , _^ . , . , ,, instructions.
assert the ancient royal prerogative and the Kings right to call
Parliaments, to disown the Covenanting legislation of 1643-9 and
relative statutes, to pass an Act of Oblivion, to encourage trade, to
annul confiscations, to give precedence to the officers of the Crown,
and to give sepulture to the remains of Montrose.* Middleton was
also to discover privately the popular view of Episcopacy.^
On 7th January 1661, Middleton, Parliament, magistrates, citizens,
military, and the clan Graham, wended their way to the gallows-foot
on Boroughmuir, now Morningside, a suburb of Edinburgh. There
' Hist., 19. - Letters, iii. 463. ' Act. Pari. Scot., vii. 7.
* Laud. Pap., i. 39 : signed at Whitehall, iglh Nov. 1660. '" Burnet, i. 199.
78
THE COVENANTERS
Montrose.
Theexhuma- lay the hashed trunk of Montrose, without head, heart, or limbs,
Montrose. beside the bones of his comrade, Sir William Hay of Dalgety.^ In
a casket, with canopy and black pall over it, the remains were borne
away by peers and barons, amid military music and popular huzzas,
Kenmure leading the jubilant cavalcade. They halted at the Tolbooth
till Graham of Gorthie, kinsman of Montrose, had climbed the lofty
gable and removed from the rusty pike a grinning skull, alleged to
be that of the hero." Amid the plaudits of the onlookers he lovingly
kissed the head, then descended to have it circled with a coronet and
laid beside the trunk to be borne away to Holyrood Abbey. Four
days the two heroes lay in state. A rainstorm ceased awhile, on the
nth May, to permit the sun to burst through and glorify the most
The burial of extraordinary burial ever witnessed in the Capital of Scotland. In
splendour it vied with the coronation of Charles i. As an exhibition
of tragic irony this demonstration has no parallel. It was virtually
the public penance of King Charles ii., who was there in proxy in
the person of Middleton, to honour the bones he gave to the gallows-
birds. Middleton, whose unoffending father fell to the swords of the
raiders of Montrose, who himself had given Montrose's home to the
flames and shot his domestics at a post — a Malignant, Cromwellian,
and whitewashed Covenanter by turn — was paid to mourn and drink
that day, and to safely house in Holy Church the fragments of a
comrade he fought with, an antagonist he pursued. Nobles who
had sent Montrose to his doom — Tweeddale, Roxburgh, Forrester —
joined Cavaliers, who bled with him, in making his burial memorable.
With ' wedding countenances,' we are told, they in a magnificent
cortege, with honours, arms, colours, and relics, accompanied the
remains through files of soldiery, over the very spot where the hang-
man hashed his body, up to the renovated ' eastmost ' Church of
' Cf. Register House, Hist. Dept., Q. 299, for Hay.
- Cf. antca, vol. i. 467. Sir Edward Walker made the following interesting note regard-
ing Cromwell's actions in Edinburgh : ' For now having settled the minds of the People at
Edenborough, blockt up the Castle, released all the prisoners there, and (as I hear) caused
the Head of the Marquess of Montrose to be taken down and buried, upon Saturday the 15th
of September, he marched thence to Leithgow, having got a Recruit of 600 men out of
England ' : Hist. Disc, 1 87.
THE RESTORATION 79
St. Giles. In the Montrose aisle they deposited Montrose in a
splendid tomb. Charles, no doubt, imagined that he had thus
appeased the >nanes of his faithful servant whom he had forsaken.
The Covenanting clergy did not countenance the significant, pro-
phetic pageant. According to a quaint narrative, the ministers ' like
howlets ' kept out of sight, the superstitious giving this reason, ' lest
the bones of both should bleed.' '
The fearful Argyll in his prison in the Castle could hear the
salvoes of artillery and the shouts of the merry crowds that day, and
probably the lively music and the hilarity of the gentry who danced
out that funeral night. His jailer, obliging or vindictive, could easily
point out to the prisoner the pike which gallant Gorthie had left
vacant for another skull — it was to be that of Argyll himself — for
mobs to hiss at and Castle gunners to make a target of. Gorthie
would not enjoy this revenge. He died that night, after his act of
devotion, and the Covenanters said it was a judgment.
From January till 12th July the eager Parliament-men, under
their taskmaster, Middleton, worked at their tale of bricks, — nearly
four hundred enactments, many of them having the stamp of
Lauderdale upon them.
The first statute, entitled 'Act constituting the Chancellor President statuu-s of
in all time coming ; and for taking the oath of Parliament,' at the very
outset, made Charles master of the situation." The kernel of the
' Oath of Allegiance,' which was to have such momentous issues,
was : ' I acknowledge my said Soverane only supream Governor of
this Kingdome over all persons and in all causes . . . renunce and
forsake all foreign Power . . . and shall never decline his Majesties
Power and Jurisdiction, as I shall answer to God.' This oath and
acknowledgment of the King's prerogative was required of all public
officials ^ and burgh magistrates.^ Cassillis himself was proceeded
against for ignoring this statute, and debarred from holding any ofifice
' Wiison, Mem. 0/ Edin., loo; Nicoll, 330; Baillie, iii. 466; Nupier, Memoirs, u. 819-37.
F"or relics of Montrose, cf. Proe. Soc. Antiq. Scot.., xxxi. 65.
^ Act. Pari. Scot., vil. 7, Act I. ^ Ibid., Act 62, p. 44.
* Ibid., .\ct 255, p. 236.
8o THE COVENANTERS
of trust.' Here in a moment was a coup d'dtat which patriots, Parlia-
ment-men, and pastors did not expect, and could not remedy till the
Revolution. Realising its import and far-reaching intention, they
then demanded the insertion of the word 'civil' before 'supream
authority,' but Melville, Cassillis, and another member from Ayrshire
failed to get this qualification inserted. Middleton and Glencairn
assured the timorous that no ecclesiastical jurisdiction was aimed at.
The westland men, inflexibly loyal to the Presbyterian cause, feared
the destruction of their freedom gained in 1592, and their protest now
was the expiring voice of political liberty."
King Charles, In this way, Charles 11. became Pope of Scotland— a Hildebrand,
iand!° '^^ ^'^^ ^^ vestige of religion, however. He was monarch of all he sur-
veyed. His Parliament, in several statutes, declared the King's pre-
rogative to select the officers of state, to call and dissolve Parliaments
and all meetings, to nullify all future convocations, leagues, and bands
made without royal sanction, to make peace or war, to annul the con-
vention which resulted in the League with England in 1643,^ to rule
arbitrarily, irresponsibly. The second Act turned Wariston out of
office and declared him fugitive and traitor.* Another Act (10) granted
two thousand merks to the brave Mrs. Christian Fletcher or Granger of
Kinneff Manse, for saving the Honours of Scotland at Dunnottar Castle.
Statute repudi- These enactments were followed on 25th January by one of supreme
Covenant 'uh importance,' entitled ' Act concerneing the League and Covenant and
January 1661. dischargeing the renewing thereof without his Majesties warrant and
approbation.' "^ It declares that document and the Acts relative to it
not obligatory on the kingdom or lieges, who are henceforth forbidden
to interpose by arms or in any seditious way in religious or secular
affairs in the three kingdoms, or to renew any Covenant or Oath
without royal warrant. This was a sore blow to enthusiasts with
visions of a universal Presbyterian brotherhood. Worse was to follow.
Indeed, it was not easily seen where the Government was tending to.
' Act. Pari. Sc'o/., vii. 163. - Baillie, iii. 463; Wodrow, i. 93.
3 Aci. Pari. Scol., vii. 16, Act 18. * Ibid., vii. 7. ' Ibid., vii. 18, Act 22.
^ Cf. Test or Declaration that Covenants are seditious, August 1C63 : Act. Pari. Scol., vii.
462.
THE RESTORATION 8i
It was not enough to ban Anabaptists, Quakers, mass-priests, to banish
the Remonstrators out of the city, to approve of the Engagement of
1648, and rescind the ParHament's work in 1649, and other judicial
proceedings during the usurpation.' One result of this Act was the
restoration of Church patronage to loyal subjects, who might appoint
Royalists to vacant charges.^ Sir Archibald Primrose, half in jest, Rescissory
proposed to consummate this nefarious work by passing an Act ung"iegIsiation
rescinding all the legislation of the period 1640-8, on the ground '" pe"od
164O-I64S.
that it was unconstitutional. Middleton and his friends considered this
over their cups. ' When they had drunk higher, they resolved to
venture on it.' ° A rough draft extracted from Primrose, when he was
sick or maudlin, sufficed the Committee of Articles, and it became law,
28th March.* The obfuscated Commissioner saw no inconsistency in
expunging records at whose making Charles had been present, or which
he had afterwards ratified — under restraint, Middleton alleged — so long
as he secured more power for the new ruler. This calamitous legis-
lation razing the foundations of the Church, and obliterating the
indemnities agreed to by the Crown, as Burnet truly wrote, was ' only
fit to be concluded after a drunken bout.''' The unscrupulous legal
advisers of Middleton— Primrose, Mackenzie of Tarbet, Urquhart,
and Fletcher, knaves all — knew what they were driving at. That
same day on which this Act Rescissory passed, another bill entitled
'Act concerning religion and Church Government' became law." 1 1 Act concerning
was the King's latest thank-offering to God for his preservation and Mafch"i66i'
restitution! It was also his first papal rescript. In it he resolved to
maintain the national Reformed Protestant religion, ' in its purity of
doctrine and worship as it was established in this kingdome dureing
the reigne of his royall father and grandfather of blessed memory,' to
give protection to ministers who stuck to their calling, to settle and
secure Church government in a frame most in accordance with God's
1 Aa. Pari. SiOt., vii. 30, Act 46. " Act 291, Act. Pari. Scot., vii. 272.
^ Burnet, i. 215.
■• Act. Pari. Scot., vii. 86, Act 126: 'Act rescinding and annulling the pietendit Parlia-
ments in the yeers 1640, 1641,' etc. ' //ist., i. 216.
" Act. Pari. Scot., vii. 87, Act 127.
VOL. II. L
82 THE COVENANTERS
Word, monarchy, and national peace, and ' in the meantime ' to allow
'the present administration by sessions, presbyteries, and Synods.'
The grateful bacchanalian legislators reciprocated this condescension
in an Act creating the Royalists' Sabbath, according to the Gospel of
Act appointing the Book of Sports. In Mosaic terms. Act 210 ordains Restoration
Day. '°" Day (2gth May) ' to be for ever set apart as an holy day unto the Lord,
and that in all the churches of the kingdom it be imployed in publict
prayers, preaching, thanksgiving, and praises to God, for so trans-
cendent mercies.' When public worship ended, then they might have
' lawfull divertissments.' Were men ever so mad since the sycophants
of Tyre and Sidon shouted to the glittering Herod, ' It is the voice of
a god, and not of a man'.'' These 'lawfull divertissments' had one
meaning to honest, holy men like Rutherford and Guthrie, another to
bibulous Middleton junketing on the first anniversary with Principal
Leighton in the University hall, and still another to the royal head
of the Church in his convocation of painted harlots, where he practised
what he taught : ' All appetites are free, and that God will never
damn a man for allowing himself a little pleasure.'^ The Parliament
was next engaged on the indictments of Argyll, Wariston, Guthrie, and
others, in simplifying poinding (Act 218), in denouncing excommuni-
cates (Act 238), in penalising actors in marriages performed by pastors
not authorised by the established Church (Act 246), in passing Acts
on the Sabbath, on swearing, and drinking, in providing a grant for
the King of _;^40,ooo, partly out of ale and beer, and in commissioning
judges to execute witches — mostly women — who scared the Earl of
Haddington's tenantry off his lands.- By a proclamation, strangers
and sympathisers with Guthrie's Causes of Gods Wrath were ostracised
from the Capital.
Terror created This legislation terrorised the country. A few presbyteries and
statutes synods, bolder than the rest, prepared prolix overtures and declara-
tions in order to oppose the measures, but, as in the case of Fife,
Lothian, and Dumfries, they were menaced and dispersed. The
' Baillie, iii. 469 note, quoting The Work Goes Bonnely On (Edin., 1661) ; Rurnet, Foxcroft
Supp., 50. 2 /Iff Pari. Scot., vii. App. 31.
THE RESTORATION 83
Presbyterians generally still had confidence in Lauderdale and Sharp,
the hollow reeds that were about to break and pierce those who
leaned on them. But the disillusionment was not long delayed. The
more faithful of the ministers warned their flocks of the impending-
danger.
These enactments left no room for dubiety in the public mind
who the Pontifex Maximus of Scotland was ; and Charles soon was
accompanied to the altar by many assistants carrying the sacrificial
knives and sharing in the oblations which he seized and offered. To
Whom he offered cannot be postulated.
Argyll was destined to be the first victim of the reign of terror, Argyll's doom,
having been devoted to this end by the King himself, as being repre-
sentative of what was worst in a Parliament too free of the Crown, and
the basest of a nation accused of selling their Sovereign to regicides ! ^
Middleton, in a maudlin moment, divulged this malice aforethought
of his master. James Guthrie would afford a similar satisfaction on
behalf of the Covenanters and their ' rigid ' Church and system.
Lieutenant William Govan, in place of a more suitable victim, would
atone for the disloyal army of the Remonstrants. These three lay
tied to the horns of the altar. On the last day of January, Parliament, Argyll sum-
, . ^ ..... , . Ill, moned lo trial.
m the exercise 01 its judicial prerogative, sent a herald to summon
Argyll to compear on a charge of treason. The procedure which
followed can hardly be designated a trial. To Argyll's junior counsel
— the bloody Sir George Mackenzie of the persecuting days — we are
indebted for a concise account of what happened." Argyll petitioned
Parliament to grant him counsel, preferably John Nisbet, afterwards
Lord Advocate ; but Nisbet, probably forecasting the foregone con-
clusion, refused, so Parliament nominated six advocates, including
Sinclair, Dean of Faculty, Robert Burnet, Junior, and Mackenzie, to
' Aci. Pari. Scot., vii. App. ; Naphtali, 193 ; Argyll Papers, Hist. MSS. Com. Rep., vi. 617 ;
Hist. MSS. Coin. Rep., v. 203 ; Baillie, Letters, iii. 466 ; Burnet, Hist, i. 220 ; Row, Blair,
384-5 ; Mackenzie, Works, i. 80-4 ; Mackenzie, Memoirs, 34 ; Kirkton, Hist., 98 ; Lament,
Chroii., 171 ; Law, Mem., 10; Nicoll, Diary, 321, 334; Omond, Lord Advocates, \. 201;
Wodrow, Hist., i. 130; Wodro-M MSS. (Advocates' Library), xxvii. 44-54; x.\.\ii. u-17 ;
Willcock, The Great Marquess, 308, 378. ' Memoirs, 34.
and defences.
84 THE COVENANTERS
undertake the defence. Mackenzie was then a vivacious pleader,
twenty-five years old, budding into fame as Scotland's first novelist,
and, in his idle hours, a moraliser on toleration and stoicism. The
prosecutor was Lord Advocate Fletcher, a base, bribable, and
truculent fellow, of whom his biographer asserts, ' At a time when
Indictment bad men were common he was one of the worst.'' The indictment
was a list of nearly all the offences on the statute-book — treason,
arson, rebellion, murder, accession to the murder of the King. It
was in reality a prejudiced narrative of Scots affairs for a generation.
In a dignified speech to his peers and judges the accused showed how
unlike him such crimes were, claimed protection under the indemnity
of 1 65 1, and pleaded that like others, he was compelled to submit to
Cromwell, and, against his inclination, to appear to be disloyal. From
the first the simplest elements of justice were ignored and obstacles
thrown in the way of the defence. His demand for trial by justiciars,
impartial and expert, for time to lodge answers and bring witnesses,
and the request of his counsel to have freedom of pleading, were
refused. With a thirst for blood, worthy of Shylock, Fletcher, himself
a repentant complier, so far lost all sense of decency that he called
Argyll ' an impudent villain,' regarding him as a doomed man. During
the early stages of the case eftorts were made in London, especially
by his son Lome, who had married a niece of the Countess of Lauder-
dale, to render the trial null. Afraid of their success, the Royalists
on 29th April dispatched Glencairn, Rothes, and the useful Doctor
Sharp, up to Court, ostensibly to report progress, but with a sinister
purpose. They succeeded in confirming the animus of Monck, Hyde,
and Lauderdale against the panel. In the debates, in which Burnet
and Mackenzie shone, the honest attempts of Sir John Gilmour,
President of the Court of Session, to excise the unjustifiable part of
the libel, stood Argyll in good stead. The daring thrusts of Mackenzie
went hom^, when he accused his hearers of being old compliers too,
and demanded if it were not unjust ' that he [Argyll] should suffer
for acts of frailty, when the ringleaders and malitious plotters pass
' Oniond, i. 199.
THE RESTORATION 85
unnoticed.' Gilmour justified this impeachment, and roused Middleton
to retort : ' We are all of us, or most, guilty, and the King may pitch
on any he pleases to make examples.' Gilmour's opinion made the sir John
House pause and favour Argyll, when a fatal incident occurred at the ^pilJ";"^' ^
■ last moment. Argyll was at the bar. Debate and probation were
closed. A rude knock was heard, and up to the throne passed one
Campbell, servant of Macnaughton, and handed a packet to the
Commissioner.' Campbell arrived from London, and the packet Monck's six
he bore contained six letters or more, three of which Argyll letters.
had written to Lilburn in 1653, three to Monck in 1654, while
Cromwell was master of Scotland. Middleton had them read at
once, and they proved so far incriminating, by showing that Argyll
had honestly kept the letter of the Tender and oath, promising to
keep, and make others, even his son Lome, keep the peace. The
plea of compulsory submission to the usurper — ' the contagion of these
times,' as Argyll phrased it on the scaffold — was no longer acceptable.
The Argyllians, crestfallen, left the Court, which adjourned to meet on
the morrow, 24th May. Then the charges were voted proven, young
Montrose alone magnanimously refusing to vote. The next question
was 'hang or head.' It was concluded to decapitate Argyll and to Argyll
fix his head on the very spike which bore that of Montrose so long, d^".*^""
In the absence of the President, Crawford pronounced with tears the
doom of traitor's-death and forfeiture, which Argyll on his knees
received with calmness and dignity, thereafter protesting his lifelong
fidelity and affection to the King, There was no bitterness in his
plaint, ' I had the honour to set the crown upon the King's head, and
now he hastens me to a better crown than his own.' He wrote to
the King asseverating his fidelity. He was hurried away to the
felon's cell. Three days were given him to prepare for eternity. In
vain he pleaded for more. Middleton, ignoring the King's command
that no verdicts were to be executed without his approbation, was in
' Alexander Macnaughton of that Ilk was knighted by Charles ll. In 1653, Argyll dis-
charged a lieutenant of the same name, who vowed, ' if he were but able to command one
man he should be revenged on them [i.e. English] and not leave them one reeking house in
Kintyre' : Willcock, Letter iii., 383.
86 THE COVENANTERS
hot haste, and had the bloody deed over, a day before the royal
warrant was subscribed. Middleton and Glencairn were gaping for
the broad acres of Argyll and could not wait.'
Argyll in The champion of Presbyterianism and Parliamentary freedom
prison. never showed to more advantage than in the dungeon and on the
scaffold. The Tolbooth — the well-known 'Heart of Midlothian' —
with its Iron House, was then a scene of levees, and frequently a loose
place, where criminals unseen might even exchange clothes with their
visitors. Timorous to the last, Argyll, rather than hazard an old and
easy trick, cast off the dress which his faithful wife had persuaded
him for a little to put on for a disguise. One of the brutal customs
of that epoch was to deal frankly with departing friends. But the
moribund often met death with equal familiarity. The bluff Mac-
kenzie, on a final visit to his client, told him ' that the people believed
he was a coward, and expected he would die timorously.' To this
Argyll replied 'he would not die as a Roman braving death, but he
would die as a Christian without being affrighted.'" In prison,
Argyll had acquired that ecstasy of faith which makes the martyr
defiant and serene. He held discourse with the ministers, Douglas,
Hutchison, Dickson ; and he settled his earthly affairs with precision.
But gentle Leigh ton, busy with a Latin eulogy of Middleton, did not
trouble to cross the Cowgate to bid farewell to Argyll and Guthrie.
How different David Dickson! He was Argyll's bedfellow on
the night before his execution.^ Yet Professor Reid writes : '' ' Con-
trasted with him [Leigh ton], these unbending Presbyters are apt to
appear in an unlovely light.' After the deed, Middleton met Crawford
and asked him ' if he did not believe that his [Argyll's] soul was in
hell.' ' Not at all,' exclaimed Crawford, ' Argyll was naturally a very
great coward and was always afraid of dying ; so since he had heard
he had died with great resolution, he was persuaded that was from
some supernatural assistance ; he was sure it was not his natural
temper.'^
> Burnet, 223 ; Wodrov/, Anal., ii. 52, loj ; //is/. MSS. Com. Rep., v. 203. - Memoirs, 47.
' Kirkton, 103. * Lee Lecture (1899), 11. ' Burnet, i. 226.
THE RESTORATION 87
On Monday 27th May, as Argyll was leaving for execution, he
called forth Guthrie for a parting embrace, during which Guthrie
happily said: 'My Lord, God hath been with you, He is with you,
and God will be with you ; and such is my respect for your Lordship,
that if I were not under sentence of death myself, I could cheerfully
die for your Lordship.' He walked down to the scaffold at the
Cross on High Street. Standing beside The Maiden, his heart, Argyll on the
according to Cunningham, his physician, beating no stroke the more, May^iesf^'
he bade a chaste farewell to the crowd.' He blessed God and
pardoned men ; gloried in his share of the Reformation ; declared the
Covenant to be heaven-inspired and binding, even on the unborn ;
asserted his unwavering devotion to the reigning House, and his
repugnance at the death of Charles ; and rebuked the sins of the day.
He turned to gaze upon the glittering blade, while he spoke of
sufferers for sin in these terms : ' Mine is but temporal, theirs shall
be eternal ; when I shall be singing, they shall be howling.' His
final audible prayer was for the King, Government, and Council.
He knelt, laying his neck on the block, and the loaded blade sheared
off his head. Friends bore his body to the Magdalen Chapel in
the Cowgate, to await transportation, first to Lothian's vault at
Newbattle, thence to the mausoleum at Kilmun ; the hangman fixed
the head on the Tolbooth top."
There are three remarkable facts connected with the death of Difficulty in
Argyll which are worthy of mention : the original record of his trial ^?||"'^''j°^ "^
has disappeared, and only references to the trial appear in the character of
Arp\'ll.
statut^book ; none of the Campbell clan drew a dirk to save their
chief; no westland Whig nor ' Bauld Buccleuch ' dared to break the
prison of their leader. This latter fact may be explained on the
supposition that Argyll had never created enthusiasm among the
Covenanters, as his rival Montrose fascinated his following, and that
the Covenanters always attributed the timidity, caution, and diplomacy
^ Mackenzie preserves it. Memoirs, 41.
- In the chapel the table on which the body lay is still shown. The vault still exists.
The Maiden is preserved in the Museum of the Society of Antiquaries in Edinburgh. The
head was taken down on 8th June 1664.
88 THE COVENANTERS
of Argyll to a lack of righteous earnestness in the good cause. His
noble ending put a different complexion upon his intentions and
operations. It can hardly be gainsaid that his death was a gross
offence against all the best traditions of the Judicial Courts of Scot-
land, and an unpardonable exhibition of the subservience of freemen
to an arbitrary will for the sake of, it is almost certain, unrighteous
gains. One well able to judge asserted : ' The crowning iniquity,
however, was the mode in which a conviction was obtained. . . . The
conviction of Argyll was a gross miscarriage of justice.'^
The suppression by the Privy Council in November of the last
speech of Argyll, circulating in print along with that of Guthrie,
indicates that the Covenanters were now realising the loss of their
mainstay — long feared by English statesmen — who, they now
believed, had, with all his observable defects of character, battled in
vain for a noble cause, which seemed to have found a grave
with him."
The death of If that Monday was a red-letter day in the hagiology of the
Covenanters, the Saturday following, ist June, was even more
notable, since on it Guthrie, ' the secretary and champion of his party,'
was to die. Between these two bloody events came the first
anniversary of the Restoration, and on it a banquet given to the
Royal Commissioner, in the College Great Hall, Edinburgh, in
Leighton toasts honour of thcsc happy times now come. Principal Leighton, who
Middieton. j^^j sworn and also broken the Covenant, eulogised Middleton in
Latin, and broke glasses with him — the then noble inaugurator of
'a mad time,' from which he was soon to be a despised ftutcast
himself.^
Dr. Sharp, in February, settled in St. Andrews as Professor of
Divinity, was aware of the doom that had been arranged for Guthrie ;
and a week before Guthrie was called to the Bar of Parliament,
Sharp wrote to Drummond to this effect : ' Poor Mr. James Guthrie
' Omond, i. 174.
'■! Aldis, List, 1689 ; Speech upon the Scaffold, etc. (1661), fol.
2 NicoU, 335.
THE RESTORATION 89
is to appear upon Tuesday nixt, and though less criminous than
others, is lyke to be the only sacrifice of our coat.' ' Sharp wrote to
Lauderdale in favour of this friend he accused as a traitor, but after
Guthrie made his manly and exculpatory defence, the patronage of
Sharp ceased, and Sharp deserted him, he confessed, because of his
' pertinatiousnes.' On 20th February, Guthrie was brought to the
bar to receive his dittay. On loth April, he heard the full indictment indictment
for treason under five heads read out." He was accused under ^j^^"^^
statutes of James vi. of (i) treasonable utterances against the Crown
and Government, and especially of writing and promulgating the
Remonstrance; (2) writing and publishing a seditious book entitled
The Causes of God's Wrath ; (3) calumniating the King and Govern-
ment, intermeddling in civil affairs, and trying to subvert the Church
and State ; (4) unlawfully convening the lieges as if the King was
menacing Protestantism ; (5) ignoring the jurisdiction of the King
when he was summoned to Perth in 165 1. No mention was made of
the excommunication of Middleton by Guthrie nor of the Commis-
sioner's animus on that account. Guthrie made a noble defence Guthrie's
worthy of an ingenuous patriot. The replies of the accused were
simple and direct, asserting that he had no share in composing the
Remonstrance ; never uttered, nor intended uttering, disloyal expres-
sions ; acted according to a conscience directed by the Bible, the
standards of the Church, the Covenants, and the laws of the land — all
legal instruments ; ever ' keeping himself within the bounds of what
was competent to a minister of the Gospel.' He avowed a consistent
loyalty, and gave two striking illustrations of it in proving that he
opposed Cromwell as a usurper, and had preached against the
Tender, for which he was ejected from his pulpit and had soldiers
'quartered upon him for six months.'' His speech on the nth April
was the brilliant effort of a man imbued with genuine piety, a pure
conscience, and a deep sense of responsibility for his ministerial duty
to men.* Behind that dreamy, mystical face, there lurked a fire that
' Laud. Pap., i. 74, 14th Feb. 1 66 1. - Act. Pari. Scot., vii. App. 34.
' Act. Pari. Scot., vii. App. 37. ■" Wodrow, i. 171.
VOL. II. M
90 THE COVENANTERS
kindled in him, as he spoke, a fervour similar to what filled the seers
of old, and he concluded a high-toned apology, which has few like it
in the martyrologies, with these words no less brave than prophetic :
' I know for certain that the Lord hath commanded me to speak all
those things, and that if you put me to death, you shall bring innocent
blood on yourself, and upon the inhabitants of this city. My Lord,
my conscience I cannot submit, but this old crazy body and mortal
flesh I do submit [he was but forty-nine] to do with it whatsoever you
will, whether by death, or banishment, or imprisonment, or anything
else ; only I beseech you to ponder well what profit there is in my
blood : it is not the extinguishing me or many others, that will
extinguish the Covenant and work of Reformation since the year
1638. My blood, bondage, or banishment will contribute more for
the propagation of those things, than my life or liberty could do,
though I should live many years.' This vision he expanded as he
stood on the ladder top — his Pisgah height of glory. Its fulfilment
was exact. Here was all the enthusiasm of Andrew Melville revived
in the cause of spiritual and political freedom, and voiced in the
fearless spirit of John Knox. Four days later they found the charges
proved, but his eloquence had staggered his judges, and they with-
held sentence, doubtless delaying to see if highland pride or westland
faith would dare anything for Argyll.
Doom of On the day after Argyll's execution, the day before the wild
revelry in which Middleton and Leighton engaged, Guthrie was
brought once more to the bar to learn his ignominious fate and
barbarous doom — as a traitor to be hanged, his possessions forfeited,
his coat-of-arms torn and dishonoured, his head fixed on the Nether
Bow, and his children, a little boy and a girl, Willie and Sophia, and
their posterity made beggars for ever.^ It fired the blood of Guthrie,*
who began to harangue his judges, adjuring heaven 'that his innocent
blood might not be charged on the throne, and hoping that his head
would preach more on the Port than ever in the pulpit.' He was
interrupted and violently dragged away to his cell." The Earl of
' Act. Pari. Scot., vii. App. 74. " Row, Blair, 386.
Guthrie.
THE RESTORATION 91
Tweeddale, who was of a humane temperament and moderate views,
horrified at such an unprecedented punishment for a pastor, voted
against the sentence, so that he became a suspect and soon found
himself Hngering in prison and under surveillance for eight months.'
At the same time an old decree of forfeiture obtained in 165 1 The case of
against Lieutenant William Govan for his desertion to the Crom-
wellian ranks was revived, and the panel also sent to the same fate,
the verdict being varied to the small extent that his head was to
adorn the West Bow.
Govan was a small land-holder, married, had been a subaltern of
Remonstrating Strachan in the west, had followed him to the north
and proudly brought back to Parliament the standard of Montrose ;
but gossip had it that he too played an ignobler part on the scaffold of
King Charles, as headsman or guardsman, and actually brought first
news of his execution into Edinburgh."
The weary weeks of waiting in the Tolbooth Guthrie spent con- Guthrie in
versing with his wife, children, and friends, among whom was the
staunch Covenanter, William Guthrie of Fenwick, his cousin ; com-
posing his last speech ; and in communion with the Most High.
Taking his little Willie on his knee, he counselled him thus : ' Willie,
they will tell you and cast up to you that your father was hanged ;
but think not shame of it, for it is upon a good cause.' His last
speech, couched in chaste and charitable terms, is a striking testimony
to his invincible faith. He declared that he died willingly ; he might
have escaped the enemy by staining his innocency, but would not ;
he might have eluded his warders, but would not act dishonourably
even to jailers ; he had been asked to comply, but ' durst not redeem
my life with the loss of my integrity,' he wrote ; ' I judge it better to
suffer than to sin ' ; he had always been loyal and commended loyalty,
which springs from piety ; he could not accuse himself of being
unfaithful to his ministry ; he had been ' a man of contention and
sorrow ' only for Christ's sake ; he was a Protester against Malig-
1 Laud. Pap., i. 99 ; Burnet, i. 228-31.
^ Acl. Pari. Sco/., vii. 75 ; Mackenzie, Memoirs, 51.
92
THE COVENANTERS
Guthrie's
testimony.
The Martyr-
dom of
Guthrie,
1st June l66l.
nancy ; and events made the righteousness of the Protest ' now
manifest to many consciences ' (that sentence must have given a sore
heart to Robert Douglas) ; he blessed and forgave all. As Argyll
had uttered a final doleful note, so did he in repeating the causes
of God's wrath — profanity, the broken Covenants, national ingratitude
for past blessings, and the corruptions of many carnal ministers.
Animadverting upon modern Babylon, with its prelacy, liturgy,
and ceremonies, he penned the malison : ' Whosoever else be he that
buildeth this Jericho again let him take heed of the curse of Hiel, the
Bethelite, and of that flying roll threatened, Zechariah v.' This
utterance is usually, without much authority, appended to the speech
of Henderson at the close of the Glasgow Assembly. Guthrie further
testified to his personal faith, to his adherence to Presbytery and the
Church of Scotland, to the Covenants, and to the crucified Christ.
Of the Covenants he affirmed : ' These sacred, solemn, public oaths
of God, I believe can be loosed nor dispensed with, by no person, or
party or power on earth, but are still binding . . . and will be for
ever hereafter.' With such a faith, ' he would not exchange this
scaffold with the palace or mitre of the greatest prelate in Britain.'
He was ready, like Simeon, to depart, for his eyes had seen salvation.'
Tolbooth life had aggravated the lameness of the prisoner, formerly
known as ' Sickerfoot.'
On the fatal afternoon, he, staff in a loosely roped hand, tottered
down the High Street, side by side with martial Govan, into the ring
of glittering pikes and blades around the scaffold, on which the blood
of Argyll was barely dry. Having ascended a few rungs of the
ladder, Guthrie spoke for an hour. Bishop Burnet saw him suffer,
and declared that he gave his testimony ' with the composedness of a
man that was delivering a sermon.'" He mounted still higher when
he exclaimed : ' Art Thou not from everlasting, O Lord my God. I
shall not die, but live.' Before the hangman turned the ladder,
Guthrie lifted the napkin from his pensive face and uttered the
prophetic cry, long the watchword of the persecuted, ' The Covenants,
' Wodrow, i. 192.
2 Hist., i. 228.
THE RESTORATION 93
the Covenants shall yet be Scotland's reviving.' According to Sir
George Mackenzie, Guthrie was executed simply for declining the
jurisdiction of the King and Council at Stirling, i.e. laesa niajestas,
just as Andrew Crichton had suffered in 1610/
While thus one ' hothead ' had cooled, another ' hairbrain ' was The execution
waiting his turn. These are Sharp's designations for the men no °
gibbet could ' daunt.' As the martyr dangled in the air Govan looked
up, and being reminded of Christ's cross, exclaimed : ' It is sweet, it
is sweet ; otherwise how durst I look upon the corpse of him who
hangs there, and smile upon these sticks and that gibbet as the gates
of heaven.'" This Puritan soldier was in his prime, thirty-eight years
old, and having found Christ twenty-four years before, was now able
to re-echo Guthrie and confess, ' Sin and suffering have been presented
to me, and I have chosen the suffering part.' When the halter was
adjusted the bold campaigner fired his parting shot : ' The Com-
missioner and I went out to the fields together for one cause ; I have
now the cord about my neck, and he is promoted to be his Majesty's
Commissioner ; yet for a thousand worlds I would not change lots
with him, — praise and glory be to Christ for ever.'
The hackster kept the heads, but handed the bodies of the Devotion of
executed to friends in waiting. As Guthrie's corpse lay in the Old admirers!
Kirk aisle, where ladies dressed it, enthusiasts came to dip handker-
chiefs in the blood and prayed for vengeance ; while a young man,
afterwards the famous surgeon, George Stirling, sprinkled the body
with a perfume that sweetly pervaded the sacred building. There is
a gruesome story told of the blood oozing down from the pike till it
dropped on the royal coach of Middleton, as he drove through the
Netherbow Port on his way to or from Holyrood. Nothing could
erase the martyr's blood. The skull remained there till after the
disastrous fight at Bothwell Brig, when it was ordered that the heads
and hands of the two ministers. Kid and King, captured after the
fight, were to be fixed beside it, 14th August 1679.^ Shortly after
this date the head was taken down by a student, Alexander Hamilton
' Laws and Customs, etc., 25. ^ Wodrow, i. 195. = Fountainhall, Observes, i. 22S.
94 THE COVENANTERS
( 1 662-1 738), afterwards minister at Ecclesmachen and Airth and also
of the charge in Stirling held by Guthrie.'
Thus passed Guthrie, who is generally looked upon as the proto-
martyr of the Covenant," a man of high, consistent character, deep
spirituality, and lovable nature, unbending where he deemed that God
had revealed His judgment, yet confessedly human and humble as a
follower of Jesus Christ.
The fate of other suspects and prisoners must now be considered.
On 19th September 1660 the Committee of Estates proclaimed
Rutherford's Lex Rex and Guthrie's Causes of God's Wraih to be
infamous, seditious works, poisoning the springs of loyalty ; and they
ordered all copies to be handed to the authorities to save their
possessors from the charge of treason, and in order to be burned at the
public crosses by the hangmen, as was done in Edinburgh and St.
The summons Andrews. Rutherford was cited to compear before the Committee,
Rutherford. t)ut being Certified to be sick and unable to travel, was punished by a
sentence of deposition from his licence, professorship, stipend, and
personal freedom, and also summoned to the bar of Parliament. Now
that Guthrie was in the noose, and Gillespie quaking on the repent-
ance stool. Parliament, not to be balked of the prey foredoomed by
Sharp, sent a herald to hale the dying professor to Edinburgh. He
found the old enthusiast bedfast. There was still as much of the
piping voice left as to answer : ' Tell them that sent you that I have
got summons already before a Superior Judge and Judicatory, and I
behove to answer to my first summons, and ere your day come, I will
be where few kings and great folks come.' This was the last bolt
that Uriel hurled before returning to
' God's presence, nearest to His throne.'
The defiant message worse incensed the prosecutors, who would have
ejected the dying man out of college, had not a taunt from Burleigh
restrained them : ' Ye have voted that honest man out of the college,
but ye cannot vote him out of heaven.' They retorted : ' He would
' Scott, Fasti, iv. 675. The forfeiture of Guthrie was rescinded on 22nd July 1696.
2 Some students consider Argyll a sufferer for his politics more than for his faith.
THE RESTORATION 95
never win [get] there ; hell was o'er good for him.' To this Burleigh
made rejoinder : ' I wish I were as sure of heaven as he is, and I
would reckon myself happy to get a grip of his sleeve, to hale me in,
when Mr. Rutherford enters the gates.''
As Rutherford's end drew near, he seems to have become exalted Death of
in the ecstasy of his spirit into Paradise itself, where he beheld the 29th March
same wonders that the apostle had no words to describe on earth — '^'''■
the veil, the glory, the Bread of Life, the angelic choir. ' Glory shines
in Immanuel's Land,' he exclaimed shortly before ' he gave up the
ghost, and the renowned eagle took its flight unto the mountains of
spices,' on 29th March 1661. He was buried next day." In his death
Rutherford offered the best illustration of his own book on The Trial
and Triumph of Faith, 1645. Twelve days before he passed, he
emitted his manifesto : A Testimony to the Covenanted Work of the
Reformation in Britahi and Ireland from 1638 to 1649.
The character and place of Rutherford are difficult to define, he
being almost a combination of two antagonistic personalities. One
can readily imagine him perched high on some supreme judicatory,
piping with his shrill voice, from underneath a full-bottomed wig, a dry
judgment from his own text-book of law upon an uninteresting subject
of dispute, and never conceive that the same cold, judicial eye, when
lifted from leafy Anwoth into the heaven of his own imagination,
could see, so as to describe, the glories of the fair country he longed
sorrowless and sinless to dwell in for ever, freed from law and only
guided by love. A legalist and yet a lover of all ; a philosopher and
yet a prose-poet ; a narrow-minded patriot and yet a citizen warring
for heaven ; a man of 'passions wild and strong,' wrestling with him-
self in a mystic's dream, was Samuel Rutherford.
It looked ominous for Gillespie, the third of the 'antimagistratical ' Escape of
enemies of the Crown, as the jaundiced imagination of Sharp con- JI'?!,"'^''.
'J *=> r^ Gillespie.
ceived of him. On 6th March he appeared at the bar of Parliament
' Walker, Six Saints, i. 359 ; ii. 197 ; Wodrow, i. 205 ; Gilmour, Rutherford, 225 ; Smellie,
Men of Cov^ianl, 49 ; Row, Blair, 366.
'■^ Lamont, Chron., 167,
96
THE COVENANTERS
Banishment
of Robert
MacWard.
Alexander
Moncrieff
evicted.
and received his dittay. He had powerful friends in the legislature,
and, being of a more elastic temperament in face of peril than were
his fellow-prisoners, he was induced to put an acceptable construc-
tion upon his attitude to the Remonstrance and to the 'Causes,' and
to prepare a petition or recantation which Parliament recommended
to the King in his mercy. The result was that on 6th July Gillespie
was liberated, but his liberty was curtailed, and he was confined with-
in a certain rural circle.^ Surprised at this clemency, the King
exclaimed : ' Well, if I had known that you would have spared
Mr. Gillespie, I would have spared Mr. Guthrie.' "
On 7th June, Robert M'Quair or MacWard, collegiate minister of
the Outer High Church of Glasgow, was also found guilty of sedition.
His simple offence was, that in February 1661 he, in order to be free
of guilt, protested against all Acts passed or to be passed against the
Covenants and the Covenanted work of Reformation in Scotland.^
He modified his expressions till they simply bore that he testified
aofainst such leoislation. The recantation was insufficient. On
1 2th July, Parliament gave him six months in which to pack up
and seek a refuge on the Continent. He became Scots pastor in
Rotterdam and his manse was for long the rendezvous of the e.xiled,
the headquarters whence issued many communications, and some-
times pistols, to the persecuted at home. He died in December 1681.''
Alexander Moncrieff, minister of Scoonie, a staunch Protester, a
temporary chaplain to Charles 11., and during the Commonwealth a
consistent opponent of the Usurpers, was brought before Parliament,
and being found intractable was declared incapable of holding any
place of trust and evicted from his parish.'' His popularity as a
Conventicler led to his being persecuted from place to place. He
escaped confinement, but had letters of intercommuning passed
against him in 1675. He survived till 1688."
' A</. Pari. Scot., vii. App. i8, 66, 75, 81. - Wodrow, i. iSo.
^ Wodrow, i. 207. ■* Steven, Scot. Church in Rotterdam, 336.
^ Act. Pari. Scot., vii. 367a. He was grandfather of Alex. Moncrieff of Abernethy, the
Seceder.
« Row, Blair, 248, 358, 418, 561.
THE RESTORATION 97
Confinement in prison for ten months broke the health of Robert Robert Trail
Trail, who, after compearing before Parliament and making a manly ''='°'=''^'^-
answer to his libel, was permitted liberty to live in the city, from
which in December 1662 he was banished out of the kingdom on
pain of death.* For even corresponding with him, his wife, Jean
Annan, was sent to prison in June 1665.
James Kirko, laird of Sundaywell, Dunscore, after lying four James Kirko,
months in jail was discharged, soon to find himself on Middleton's '"^"^'''
list of fines for ;^36o, then plundered for years into beggary by
Sir James Turner and other soldiers, who had free quarters on his
estate. He became a wanderer, and with Maxwell of Monreith went
to Ireland, after RuUion Green. Probably it was he who returned
to get the martyr's crown, being shot on the White Sands of Dumfries
in 1685.-
The case of Sir John Chiesley of Kerswell, a staunch Covenanter, sir John
knighted by Charles i.. Secretary to the Commissioners in 1646,
and to Parliament, who had suffered for his fidelity to the King, was
discreditable to the Government. He was charged with invading
Drumlanrig in 1650 and with treason, fined ^2400 and committed
to one prison after another for ten years, till the King ordered his
release in 1670.^
The process against Wariston, who had evaded arrest and escaped judgment on
to Holland, was followed up on ist February by a summons for him
to compear like his associates and answer to the charge of treason.
In his case they were careful to take depositions from witnesses and
to prove the indictment framed. It specified in detail his treason-
able acts, compassing the subversion of the Government, aiding
and abetting the rebels against, and murderers of, the late King,
associating with the usurpers, rising in arms against Charles 11.,
' Row, Blair, 364, 416, 430. He sailed for Holland in March 1663, and returned to
Edinburgh, where he died in 167S.
2 Memoirs of Veitch and Bryson, 49, 50, 400, 403. His house and its inscription, 'J. K.
and S. W. [S. Welsh] 165 1,' remain. For his epitaph, cf. Thomson, Martyr Graves,
472, 474-
' Act. Pari. Scot., vii. App. 17 ; ibid., 96, 423a ; Row, Blair, 531.
VOL. II. N
98 THE COVENANTERS
tyrannising over the lieges, murdering some, notably Montrose,
endeavouring to destroy the King's majesty after deserting him, and
many other felonious acts punishable with death. On 15th May,
Parliament found the fugitive guilty, and recorded a ' Decreit of
Forfaltour ' against him, stripping him of everything, and ordaining
him to suffer the doom of traitors at the Cross of Edinburgh. A
subsequent judgment honoured his head with a place on the Nether-
bow Port beside that of Guthrie.^
The Government, satisfied that they had made a good beginning
of the reign of law and order, concluded it best meantime to stay
the headsman's hand, and they left Judge Swinton, twice forfeited
of life, lands, and estate, languishing in the Tolbooth, banished
Simson of Airth, held a few suspects in jail, while allowing others
out on bail, such as John Livingstone, and Nevay — the grim councillor
at Dunaverty — whose hour had not yet come.^
The Earl of At this time a melancholy sight might have given Middleton
be^'^rr"'^' ^ pause in his wild career, had he seen it. It was none other than
one of his predecessors in viceregal office — the Earl of Traquair —
standing on the streets of the Capital soliciting alms from passers-by.
Eraser, in his Diary, thus records the fact : ' I saw him (anno 1661)
beofoino; in the streetes of Edinburoh. He was in an antick garb,
wore a broad old hat, short clock, and pannien breeches ; and I
contributed in my quarters in the Canongate at that time, which
amounted to a noble which we gave him, and his hat off, the Master
of Lovat, Culbocky, Glenmoriston, and myselfe ; which piece of
money he received from my hand as humbly and thankfully as the
poorest supplicant. It is said that at a time he had not to pay for
cobling his bootes, and died as we hear (1668) in a poor coblers
house ; so that of him we may say with the poet, who describes
him well —
' Act. Purl. Scot., vii. App. 7-1 1, 66, 69, 95.
2 Row, Blair, 388. Simson died in Holl.and. Sharp declared lo Primrose, Lord Register,
that he begged the lives of Guthrie and Gillespie, 'which his Majesty denied'; but that he
was successful in his request for a mitigation of the charge against Simson : Wodrow,
i. 197 note.
THE RESTORATION 99
" Fortunae speculum, Tracuerus scandit in altum ;
Ut casu graviore ruat, regisque favore
Tollitur ; hinque cadit." ' ^
After these tragedies were over, Tweeddale, with a light heart,
entertained the Commissioner to a sumptuous banquet, and the only
return which the Commissioner thought that this friendliness deserved
was an accusation conveyed in his report to the King, to the effect
that Tweeddale endeavoured to frustrate the work in Parliament
which Middleton had been sent to see accomplished. Such were
the ' gentlemen ' for whom Charles 11. declared that Episcopacy was
most suitable ! ^
' Chron. of the Frasers (Wardlaw MS.), 476 (Scot. Hist. Soc, edit. 1905).
" The Lauderdale-Tweeddale Correspondence, in the possession of the Marquis of
Tweeddale, was not available for consultation, having temporarily gone amissing. The
volume has been restored to Yester House.
lOO
THE COVENANTERS
CHAPTER XXI
CONDITION OF THE COUNTRY IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY — THE
COVENANTERS : THE GENTLEMEN OF THE RESTORATION
Buckle's libel
of the
Covenanters.
The bitterest indictment ever penned against the Presbyterian
system as it existed in the middle of the seventeenth century will be
found in Buckle's History of Civilisation in England. He expressed
his conclusion thus : ' I will not be deterred from letting this age
see the real character of a system which aimed at destroying all
human happiness, exciting slavish and abject fear, and turning this
glorious world into one vast theatre of woe.' In another passage he
wrote : ' Whatever was natural was wrong. The clergy deprived
the people of their holidays, their amusements, their shows, their
games, and their sports : they repressed every appearance of joy ; they
forbade all merriment ; they stopped all festivities ; they choked up
every avenue by which pleasure could enter ; and they spread over
the country an universal gloom.' Of their sermons he declared :
' There is in these productions a hardness of heart, an austerity of
temper, a want of sympathy with human nature, such as have rarely
been exhibited in any age, and I rejoice to think, have never been
exhibited in any other Protestant country.' The Scots preachers
'sought to destroy not only human pleasures but also human
affections. ... A Christian had no business with love or sympathy.' *
No more jaundiced critic ever essayed the measurement of the
Scottish intellect or showed himself so incompetent to gauge it.
Aliens, ill-informed and inclined to bias, should have a care when they
emerge from their own cave to find themselves in light that confuses
the untried eye.
The following facts will serve as a corrective
' Hist, of Civil., iii. 255, 269, 275, 276.
of
THE COUNTRY IN SEVENTEENTH CENTURY loi
Buckle's erroneous views of Scottish civilisation, at least in the
Covenanting age.^
The student, keeping in view the fact that the Covenanters had
high ideals and noble aims, namely, to make every individual recog-
nise his own responsibility for the temporal and eternal welfare of
himself and his neighbours, in accordance with the law of love in
Jesus Christ, has a key to unlock all the mysteries of the distracted
age of the Covenants. If he turns to the Life of Andrew Donaldson, Donaldson,
minister of Dalgety, he will find these ideals and aims largely ^^1'°' °
realised in one man, who may be accepted as the type of the true
Presbyterian, and also made practical in that Fifeshire parish where
the minister laboured to elevate peer and peasant alike, to educate
all the children, to feed, clothe, and protect the poor, to assist the
indigent at home and the unfortunate abroad, to act the soldier in
the hour of peril, and to repress vice. It can be demonstrated that
the Covenanters practised what they preached ; purity of life, truth-
fulness, and honesty ; and further, that nearly every one of those
repressive measures inspired by the Church for the curbing of vice
and mitigating disease, drunkenness, profanity. Sabbath-breaking,
have been, or are being, in our own day, re-enacted by intelligent
governments, so that, for the good of the many, the suspect, the
unsavoury, and the undesirable, whether alien or not, are being
constantly policed. The most enlightened republics to-day ask from
emigrants the same certificate of respectability and ability to work
which kirk-sessions two centuries and a half ago demanded from
incomers.'- Nor is it to be forgotten that these sessions were virtually
magisterial courts with one educated cleric presiding over many laymen
judging petty offences — surely as good a system of local government
and magistracy as our present rural and burghal system, whereby
many an ill-informed justice of the peace disposes of trivial cases to
the best of his judgment.
' Dean Stanley, in Lectures on the History of the Church of Scotland, 97, pointed out the
incorrectness of Kuckle's 'frightful picture.'
■^ Cf. a very striking instance of policing, Glasgow Herald, 21st August 1905.
I02 THE COVENANTERS
The Scots pre- Restoration clergy were not the 'plebeian class' nor
the illiterates that Macaulay made out their English brethren 'on the
whole' in 1685 to be, the generality of whom were considered unusually
lucky if each of them had ' ten or twelve dog-eared volumes among
the pots and pans on his shelves.' '
Virtues of the The Scots clergy, abhorring celibacy, cultivated domestic and
Covenanters. .... , .-,,,. , .
social happmess, and were noted for hospitality, toleration, and
humanity, which they enjoined on others. Few histories can produce
so many illustrations of parental and filial affection as are found in
the biographies of the persecuted — the pathetic stories of Guthrie
and his Willie, the Johnstons, Humes, Baillies, Blackadders, Camp-
bells, and of scores of other families being well known to readers
generally. So far from burking human joys and banning amusements,
the clergy encouraged every elevating custom, and only set themselves
against those scenes of riot where vicious men purveyed incitements
to wickedness for the debased and lascivious, at 'penny bridals,'
paying ' dredgies ' or wakes, and prolonged baptismal functions and
funerals. The absurd extravagance at these debaucheries had to be
restrained by Act of Parliament in 1681.^ No rigidness of the most
fanatical legislators in Covenanting days ever exceeded that of the
Episcopal parlementaires of 1681, who forbade even a bride from
putting off her ' braws ' — her wedding garments — on her marriage
day.^ The Covenanters by two hundred years anticipated the decorum
now normally exhibited on those solemn occasions. Indeed, according
to Kirkton, ' Nobody complained more of our Church government
than our taverners, whose ordinary lamentation was, their trade was
broke, people were become so sober.'*
Music and Many instances of the Lowland hatred of the Celtic bagpipes
(declared to be the favourite musical instrument of Satan) imply no
more than that the more musical Saxons could not bear the sound of
an instrument which brought to their remembrance ruthless foes who,
it is said, also played the pipes during the Irish massacres in 1641.
■ Hist., chap. iii. ' 1681, c. 80, viii. 350.
' Act. Pari. Scot., viii. 350. ' Kirkton, 65.
mirth.
THE COUNTRY IN SEVENTEENTH CENTURY 103
In 1 64 1 Lord Lothian had a piper in every company when his
regiment lay at Newcastle, and at the same time there was not a
sober fiddler in the Scots army there.^ The Scots loved the harp,
the harpsichord, the viol, and the flute, and still more the sweet
voices which sang those martial ballads and love lyrics which still
charm the dainty ear.
Simon, the Master of Lovat, 'had a wonderful fancy for musick, Lovat'siove
variety of which he had still by him, the harp, virginels, base and
trible viol in consort. . . . Mr. John Houstoun, the Minister of Ward-
law (a Covenanter and member of 1638 Assembly), and his sone Mr.
Thomas, were great musitians, vocal and instrumental!, who frequently
attended.'" Simon died in 1640.
In 1642, the year before the Solemn League and Covenant was
made, the new Master, Hugh Eraser, married Anna, daughter of
Lord Leven, in Holyrood House. They came to Bunchrew, and
the diarist wrote : 'It is an extravagant rant to speake of the glory
and expense of this sumptuous wedding feast,' where, we are informed,
the 'merry, jovial, facetious society' — the Earl of Sutherland, a
notable Covenanter, and his friends — had 'liquors of all sorts, meat, Gaieties at
mirth, musick, and good management of all things,' besides indulging *^ '"^'
in Highland games and sport.^ Twenty years later similar festivities
took place in Darnaway Castle at the wedding of Sir Hugh Calder.
' The kingdom could not afford better wines than was drunk, and
musick of all sorts; Edam Smith, master of the musicians in Murray,
for virginall, violins, harp, and organ, was Calder's domestic. . . . We
spent that day in a charming converse of sport, gamming, and sing-
ing.' * Nor must it be forgotten that the time-hallowed sports and
games connected with Hogmanay, Candlemas, Beltane, Halloween,
have all survived till our own day. There is a passage in the Life
of John Livingstone where he mentions the famous Principal of
Glasgow University, Robert Boyd : ' Sometimes he would call me
and some other three or four, and lay down books before us, and
' K. Sharpe, Witchcraft, 136. 2 Fraser, PoUchronicon, 265.
^ Ibid., 278. ■• Ibid., 453.
I04 THE COVENANTERS
have us sing setts of music, wherein he took great deh'ght.'' The
manse of Logie often resounded with the music of Hume the poet's
' jolie lute,' and he lent his instruments to his brother poet, the Earl
of Stirlinsf." William Veitch left the following anecdote reeardinor
Henry Erskine, father of Ralph and Ebenezer, who was ejected
from Cornhill in 1662 : 'One evening he, his wife and children went
to bed with a light supper, which made the children cry in the
morning when they awaked for meat. But there being none in the
house he bade them be still, and he would play them a spring upon
the citren [guitar]. He played and wept. . . . Before he had done
playing, a charitable lady sent him a horse-load of provisions.' '
Scottish John Erskine of Carnock, the Covenanter, recorded in his diary that
sports. j.jjg fj^ji^g^ ggfij. ]^Ij^ |-q learn dancing, and that he also enjoyed a game
at byas-bowls and went 'gunning' and 'tod-hunting.'* The more
straitlaced, like Patrick Walker, who had escaped the gallows and
plantations, would not ' crook a hough to fyke and fling at pipers' and
fidlers' springs.' He gives a satisfactory reason thus : ' I bless the Lord
that ordered my lot so in my dancing days, that made the fear ^i the
bloody rope and bullets to my neck and head, the pain of boots,
thumbikens and irons, cold and hunger, wetness and weariness, to
stop the lightness of my head and the wantonness of my feet.''^
Argyll, with his family and household, in January 1667, celebrated a
marriage, drinking, dancing, 'as merrie as you could wish us.'"
William Guthrie of Fenwick was both a fowler and a fisher, and
his primitive curling-stone is still preserved.^ Leven and King
Charles played golf at the Scottish camp. In the Covenanting period
not a single Act against games appears on the Statute Book.
The men of the Covenant were imbued with a deep-seated love
for every good thing, but as they had to fight for essentials they had
no more opportunities than other soldiers in a protracted campaign to
become occupied with arts, crafts, or ephemeral entertainments that
' Wodrow, Select BtPg., i. 134. ^ Fergusson, Alexander f/ume, 95, 97.
^ M'Ciie, Veitch, 204. ■• Erskine, _/i)«r«a/, Introd. xxv. ; xxxviii. 5.
' Walker, Six Saints, i. 240. " Argyll, Letters, 44. ' Select Biog., ii. 39.
THE COUNTRY IN SEVENTEENTH CENTURY 105
did not make for the moral welfare of the people. They loved their Humanitarian-
kind. Old Scots churchyards contain many tombs with epitaphs illus- covenanting
trative of this domestic felicity. No better instance can be found than ™'°'^'o-
on the grave of Lillias Sanderson, whose husband's manse at Keir,
Dumfriesshire, was wrecked by Colonel Nathaniel Gordon.^ Living-
stone narrates how he got a ' marriage affection ' for his bride after
prayer. ' But thereafter,' he honestly confesses, ' 1 had a great
difficulty to moderate it.' The character which the northern Cove-
nanters gave their Boanerges, Andrew Cant, whom they reckoned to
be the ' greatest man of his age,' was that he was ' ardent and loving.' ^
The epitaph of Patrick Purdie, minister of Newlands, a stalwart
Covenanter (1634-61), declared that he
' to hik dying day did never tire
To feed and lodge a Lazarus at his fire ;
A man ingenuous far beyond the fashion.
Wholly composed of pity and compassion.'
Many ministers left money for the poor ; others, like Alexander
Henderson, for education, and many subscribed handsomely for the
library in Glasgow University. Ker, minister of Lyne, gave nearly all
he had to the poor, also catechising the vagrants whom he relieved.
Walter Pringle of Greenknowe in his Memoirs testifies to the humanity
of Guthrie the martyr : ' At Stirling I advised with my dear friend, Mr.
James Guthrie, anent mine own and my brother's children (to whom
that faithful man had ever a most tender respect) concernements.'^
Pringle's own narration of his anxiety for his wife and unborn babe,
for whom he prayed under a plum-tree in the garden, does not lack
pathos. The persecutions to which these men were subjected did not
' HERE LYIS INTERRED BENETH THIS BRITTLE STONE
'A LII.IE ONCE SO RARE AS FEW OR NONE
WITHIN THE PRECINCTS OF FAIR FLORA'S TREASURE
COULD PARALEL FOR GRACE OR VIRTUE'S MEASURE
WHO HEINO MUCH WEARIKD BY THIS WORLD'S TOYLE
GOD HATH TRANSPLANTED TO A BETTER SOVLE.'
* ' Vir suo serulo . . . ardens et anians . . . Boanerges et Barnabas, Magnes et Adamas' ;
April 30, 1663, aged seventy-nine. Tombstone in St. Nicholas, Aberdeen : Menteith, Theater.
' Select Biog., i. 432.
VOL. II. O
io6
THE COVENANTERS
Guthrie.
turn the milk of human kindness into gall and wormwood. Some
Wit of William retained their mother-wit till death, even on the scaffold. William
Guthrie, minister of Fenwick, was 'cheerful and facetious, yet
tempered with gravity as becometh a minister of Christ.' He was
wont to indulge in 'singular sallies of wit and innocent mirth.'* No
one who ever read Guthrie's sermon on Sympathy would ever class
him among the 'hard-hearted.'^ So deep was the love of the
persecuted for each other that there is scarce an instance of any one,
even when writhing in the torture-chamber in Edinburgh, betraying a
fellow-wanderer.
It must be conceded that many of the literary fragments left by
these popular preachers are blemished with gross absurdities and
strange vulgarities of expression, but it has to be borne in mind that
many of these works were unauthorised reports written out from
memory, while others are the fabrications of enemies. Many are
posthumous, and should be appraised with some consideration. There
remain sufficient Session and Presbytery Records to show the net
results of the doctrines taught by the 'hard-hearted.' Side by side
with passages proving hard dealings with evil-doers, are others
displaying humanitarianism of the highest kind — indeed, of a higher
kind than any of which we have any knowledge in connection with
modern religious institutions. Knox's generous consideration of the
evicted priests has already been referred to. What finer spirit of
tolerance could be shown than that of John Livingstone of Ancrum,
who after receiving sentence of expatriation said : ' Well, though it be
not permitted me that I should breathe in my native air, yet I trust
what part of the world soever I go to, I shall not cease to pray for a
blessing to these lands, and to his Majesty, and the Government, and
the inferior magistrates thereof, but especially to the land of my
nativitie.'^ He died at Rotterdam, 9th August 1672. The poor,
helpless, broken, the victims of Irish kerns or Turkish pirates,
aspiring youths, bankrupt merchants, harassed natives of Orkney and
' Select Biog., ii. 65. - Ibid., ii. 66.
' ' A.ne Accompt,' etc.. Select Biog., i. 2ig (i ith December 1662).
Kindness of
Covenanting
times.
THE COUNTRY IN SEVENTEENTH CENTURY 107
Shetland, stranded foreigners, lepers, and insane folk, were special
wards of the Church.^ The modern Church has fallen from its high
estate. A nobler fellowship than ours bound the Covenanted Church
together. Yet to have expected men and women to fling and sing,
to play and be gay, to carry out the Gospel of the Book of Sports on
Sabbaths, and, in fine, to exhibit the wantonness that made the reigns
of the last Stuart kings unbearable, all the while the Covenanters had Fears of the
just grounds for fearing the recrudescence of Popery, were repressed
for refusing the political nostrums of James i., were lamenting the
thousands whom the policy of Charles i. sent into bankruptcy,
bloody graves, and burning plantations, were stunned with horror at
the idea that Jesus Christ was removed from His throne in the Church
in order to permit a ribald ruler, no better than an atheist, to quit
his divan of painted harlots and salacious courtiers and to take upon
himself the governance of the Church, suggests a way of thinking
which Scotsmen have always contemned. The greatest intellect of
the age, Milton, declared Popery and idolatry to be insufferable —
the former being usurped political authority, and the latter impiety ;
and it is not to be wondered at that northern views of toleration
coincided with this conclusion.
The commonest intellect in the north was able to appraise the
King's ' religion of a gentleman,' as well as Hallam, who pertinently
corroborated the Covenanters thus : 'It was a religion of the boots
and the thumbscrew, which a good man must be very cold-blooded
indeed if he did not hate and reject it from the hands that offered it.'"
I am not inclined to discredit and discard, as so many writers Spiritual;
have done, the remarkable account of the spiritual condition of Scot- scoti'ami.
land, or at least of some districts of it, in the Covenanting period,
furnished by Kirkton the historian.^* His narrative bears : 'In the
interval betwixt the two kings [1649- 165 1 or 1661], religion advanced
the greatest step it hade made for many years ; now the ministry was
1 Stevenson, The Prcsbytrie Booke of Kirkcaldy, 36, et passim.
• Const. Hist., iii. 334.
^ Hist., 48-64. Kirkton was a graduate of Edinburgh in 1647, settled first in Lanark, then
in Merloun.
io8
THE COVENANTERS
Kirkton's
testimony
corroborated.
notably purified, the magistracy altered, and the people strangely
refined. . . . Scotland hath been even by emulous foreigners called
Philadelphia ; and now she seemed to be in her flower ... as the
bands of the Scottish Church were strong, so her beauty was bright
. . . no scandalous person could live . . . most part were really
godly, or at least counterfeited themselves Jews . . . this seems to
me to have been Scotland's high noon. The only complaint of
prophane people was, that the government was so strict they hade
not liberty enough to sin.'
He further makes the important averment that the hurt to religion
through the contentions of the Resolutioners and Protesters was
' inconsiderable in regard of the great successe the Word preached
hade in sanctifying the people of the nation.' ' . . . ' At the king's
return every paroche hade a minister, every village hade a school,
every family almost had a Bible, yea, in most of the country, all the
children of age could read the Scriptures, and were furnished of
Bibles, either by the parents or by the ministers. . . . Every minister
was obliged to preach thrice a week, to lecture and catechise once,
beside other private duties. . . . Indeed, in many places the Spirit
seemed to be poured out with the Word, both by the multitude of
sincere converts, and also by the common work of Reformation upon
many who never came the length of a communion : there were no
fewer than sixty aged people, men and women, who went to school,
that even then they might be able to read the Scriptures with their
own eyes. I have lived many years in a parish where I never heard
ane oath, and you might have ridden many miles before you hade
heard any.'^ Every family, too, had family worship. An almost
identical account of this golden age is given in the Life of Alexander
Reid, a Scottish Covenanter, zvritten by himself} He says he was
born in Kirkliston in 1646, 'that flourishing time of the Gospel,'
and had a splendid education in the Scriptures and the principles
laid down in the Westminster Standards. In New Mills, during
• Hist., 54. » Ibid., 64.
' Manchester, 1822. He was the father of Rev. George Reid of Ochiltree.
THE COUNTRY IN SEVENTEENTH CENTURY 109
the ministry of James Greig (1597- 1635), ' in one winter forty persons
all above forty years of age learned to read, that they might profit
by reading the Scriptures.'^ In the parish of Dalgety, in Fife, we Donaldson's
find a district which fully justified the encomium of Kirkton, and ^""
there is evidence that it was not unique. In Dalgety from 1644 till
1662, when he was ejected, laboured Andrew Donaldson, M.A., a
Protester and noble sufferer for the Covenant.- The parish was fully
equipped. Nobility, gentry, and humble parishioners formed a Kirk-
session, fifteen in number. A reader was still in office. Six deacons
cared for the poor. During the ministry of Donaldson the church
was repaired, and a school and schoolhouse were erected for the first
time. A committee of the Session regularly visited the school, in
which poor and rich were taught together — the poor being provided
with fees and food. It was enacted that little herd-boys be not
neglected, but sent to church and to the catechising every second
or third Sabbath, so as to ' be bred up in the knowledge of the
grounds of religion ' — all being kept at school till they were able
to read the Bible. The General Assembly of 1642 had appointed
' The Three R's ' as the minimum of rural education, namely, Reading, The three Rs
Writing, and Religion. ' Poor bodies ' got Bibles free ; no fewer than '" ' '*''
eleven Bibles, costing £2 Scots each, being given away in one month
in 1654. In 1645 the minister himself went to the war. Under such
a pastor — and he was only one among many such — the whole tone
of the parish was raised. Humanitarianism was the rule. Hence
we find the poor cared for, a ' lame soldier ' provided for, a collection
taken for a man whose horses were suffocated, the pestilence fought,
and the uncharitable publicly rebuked for their 'hardness of heart.'"
Elders visited all the congregation once a month to deepen the
Christian life. Could the English critic have produced any individual
or parochial parallels to such love of the brethren ?
It is an identical picture which the two authors of Naphtali — both Pictures from
competent to write authoritatively — give of the state of Scotland before "^ '" ''
• Scott, F(isti, iii. 183. - Ross, Glimpses of Pastoral Work, q.v.
'- January 14, 1653, Ross, Glimpses.
no THE COVENANTERS
the Restoration. James Stewart (afterwards Lord Advocate), with
his experience of the Lothians, in the Preface declaring : ' The land
that was sometimes Holiness unto the Lord is become the borders
of wickedness and an Aceldama.' Stirlincr, minister in Paisley, an
Ayrshire man, evidently conversant with affairs in the south-west,
testifies, 'before the end of the year 1638, the work of God was
revived with more Glory and Splendour than ever formerly it had
attained.'^ The Restoration was the terminal of this phenomenal
movement for the edification of the people, if the testimonies of John
Livingstone and the Marquis of Argyll are trustworthy. Livingstone
acknowledged that 'some two or three years after the English had
in a manner subdued the land, there began some reviving of the work
of God in the land in several parts.'" Yet Brodie, in his Diary in
1655, laments the awful sins 'abounding in everie congregation,
drunkenness, adulterie,' etc^ Argyll on the scaffold declared : ' I
hear assuredly that whoring, swearing, and drinking were never
more common and never more countenanced than now.'
This was too true, as the sequel will show.
Survivals of It cannot be denied, however, that, in spite of the earnest efforts of
the clergy to outroot superstitions, survivals of old pagan faith and
custom were looked upon as obligatory and potent as the Gospel.
Recording his experience in the Highlands in 1652, Clark informed
the Speaker of the House of Commons : ' The people [are] very
simple and ignorant in the things of God, and some of them live
even as bruitish as heathen . . . heard our preaching with great
attentions and groanings.'' A visitor to Scotland in 1659 wrote
a terrible description of the immorality and dirt he discovered there,
and his indictment was not minimised by another writer in 1679.'* The
latter writer refers to the show of religion in the country, where ' if
you crack a nut there is a grace for that,' while there is ' nor decency
' Naph/ali, 46, 50. - Life, 186. ^ Diary, 128.
* Scot, and Common., 363.
^ A Perfect De.<:cription, etc., by J. S. (Lond., 1659), 22 pp. ; A Modern Account, elc, 1679,
pp. 18. However, 1 do not find these indictments borne out by a reference to the manuscript
Judicial records of the time when compared with those of earlier and later periods.
paganism.
THE COUNTRY IN SEVENTEENTH CENTURY iii
nor order in their divine or contumelious service.' ^ He also mentions
the barbarity of the Scots in cutting collops out of living bestial.^
The people generally believed that spirits, good and evil, roamed Belief in
everywhere, persons murdered haunting the scene of their dispatch. '^'" ""
For this reason, according to Fountainhall, five men were executed
and hung in chains at Magus Moor to ' expiate and appease the
Archbishop's [Sharp] ghost who was there murdered.'" Ghosts of
the dying or dead appeared to their friends, as Balbegno did to
Middleton, and Claverhouse to Balcarres.* Fairies danced round the
' wirrikow ' ; little men in green inhabited the knolls, and virile spirits
lurked in wells and streams.'^ Malcolm Cameron — Calum Mor Nan
Seilag — in Kilmodan was wont to disperse these spirits by constant
expectorations." The spittle spell was in widespread use." The
Beltane fire was lit with awe, and each glowing hearth was watched
with vestal care on New Year morn, lest an expired fire should
presage some calamity. The Devil was a real personage, able to
transfigure and transform himself into the shapes of animals, persons,
and things.'' He held hilarious court with wizards, witches, warlocks,
crones ('cailleaich '), till jovial Burns drove him for ever from Kirk
Alloway. Into the satanic service the deluded sold themselves in a
weird ceremonial in order to purchase the vaunted power to bless and
curse their fellow-creatures. Even saintly Leighton sent to doom
these covenanters with the Devil.'-" The punishment of witchcraft— a Witchcraft.
legacy from the Papists— was as much insisted upon by the educated
laity and gentry as by the ministers, and the craze decreased during
the ascendency of the Covenant. The soldiers of Cromwell (1650)
would not permit the torture of the suspected witches, who were
' A Modern Account, etc., 7, 8. ^ Ibid., 13.
^ Decisions, i. 62 (Nov. 10, 1679). ■" Klrkton, 67 note ; Sharpe, Witchcraft, 170.
^ Cf. AUt an .Spiorad in Kilmodan ; the Wishing Well at St. Blane's, Bute.
" Maclnnes, The Kyles of Bute, 7.
' Presby. Bookc of Kirkcaldy, Sept. 10, 1640 : Margaret Lindsay accused of 'spitting on
a bairne's face of the fallen sickness.'
* Stevenson, 'A Rare Comforting Cordial,' etc., in Select Biog. (Wodrow Soc, ii. 445);
Fergusson, Scottish Social Sketches, etc., 88-105.
• Presby. Rec. of Dalkeith, quoted by Butler, Leighton, 223, 233.
I 12
THE COVENANTERS
Auspices and
portents.
Public
worship.
probed by professional ' prickers,' iiung up by their thumbs tied
behind their backs, whipped, had lighted candles put to their soles,
into their mouths, and upon their heads, before being burned to ashes,
drowned, or relegated to the dungeon to die of their wounds.' With
the advent of Episcopacy there was an increase of witchcraft, accord-
ing to the urgent petition of the Earl of Haddington to the Govern-
ment in 1660." Auspices were read from birds, and portents from
unusual sights in earth and sky. Some ' uncanny ' persons were
credited with power of second-sight, prophecy, casting 'the evil eye,'
and glamoury. The hapless Montrose believed in astrology ; Rothes
was said to have been bewitched by Lady Ann Gordon ; and
Primate Sharp, it was reported, met his death while carrying in a box
an unavailinsr talisman beside his own familiar— a humble bee. The
godly, on the other hand, exhibited their intimacy with the Most
High by showing 'motions' of the Spirit which agitated them into a
Pythonic ecstasy. Few of the later Covenanters doubted the pro-
phecies of the famous Peden. But it is noteworthy that superstition
of an offensive character lingered longest where Roman Catholicism
and Episcopal Royalism continued to resist the more enlightening
influences of the faith, as expounded by the rigid Covenanters, whose
imaginations were of the most ecstatic, spiritual nature.
During the period prior to 1638, the public worship of the Church
consisted of prayer, reading of Scripture, psalmody, and preaching.
Public and private catechising was not neglected. There was a daily
service in church for the reading of prayers and of Scripture. In the
larger centres there were two services each Sabbath, and on that day,
generally speaking, the first bell rang at seven in the morning, the
second at eight, and the third at nine. The congregation assembled
at eight to hear the reader in the ' latron ' (reader's desk) read the
common prayers from The Book of Co^mnon Order, lead the singing
of the psalms, with the ' conclusion ' — ' Glorie to the Father,' etc., and
' Scot, and Common., 368.
- Act. Pari. Scot., vii., App. 31. The printed Records of the Justiciary Court substantiate
the petition (cf. vol. i. pref. xxi.-xxvii., 2-8, 11, 13, 19, 20,
58, 75, 104, 269 (Scot. Hist. Soc).
24, 34. 121 ; vol. ii. 11, 17, 56, 57,
THE COUNTRY IN SEVENTEENTH CENTURY 113
read the portions of Scripture selected, as well as the Decalogue
and the Creed. It is not known to what extent, or for what lensfth
of time, Carswell's translation of The Book of Common Order [Foirm.
na nvrrnvidheadh, 1567) was used in the Highlands.^ Besides the
reader, there was in many churches a precentor or ' uptaker of the
psalm.' The minister entered the pulpit at nine o'clock after the
reader concluded. The action in the service was as follows : —
A.
B.
''(i) Prayer— confession of sin — read to people kneeling
and uncovered.
(2) The Psalm, with one of thirty-two of the printed
Doxologies in conclusion.
' (3) Minister's private prayer in pulpit, where he knelt.
(4) Sermon to people (with hats on their heads).
(5) Minister's prayer for the whole estate of Christ's
Church, either read, or extemporised, concluding
with the Lord's Prayer and the Creed.
(6) Psalm with Doxology.
(7) Benediction.
The service lasted about an hour according to the hour-glass,^ The same
procedure was observed at an afternoon service, special prayers being
introduced as occasion required. Children of twelve were admitted to
the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper. In 1613 the people, fasting, took
the Sacrament.^ Welsh's Catechism was then in use in churches.
The spread of Brownism and the influence of the nonconformist
ministers expelled by the prelates of Ireland led to the introduction
of innovations, and the gradual discarding of the ' three nocent
ceremonies — Paternoster, Gloria Patri, and kneeling in the pulpit.'
Sitting at the Communion of the Lord's Supper was also reintroduced.
' A copy of this rare work was sold a few years ago for over £y>o.
^ 'It is ordenit that quhen he [David Philp, A.M., 1617-32] teitches, that he turne the
glass, quhen he goes to the pulpit, that the prayer, psalme, and preitchings be all endit
within the hour, under the pain of vis., viiid.' : Kirk-Sess. Rec. Elgin, 14th October 1621 ;
Fasti, v. 151. For the innovation of interposing the singing of a Psalm between the reading
and exposition of the chapter, a minister was presbyterially censured : Presby. Booke of
Kirkcaldy, 304. ^ Row, Blair, 6.
VOL. II. P
114
THE COVENANTERS
Results of
Westminster
Assembly.
The authorisation of the Westminster Directory, which was in the
hands of Presbyteries in July 1645, ^^d to 'novations,' which Mon-
trose in his defence declared to be violations of the National
Covenant for which he had taken up arms.^ One early result of the
Westminster Assembly was the dropping of the daily service, of
private prayer on entering church, of the printed prayers, of the
regular reading of the chapters, and of the Doxology. The uplifting
of the collection was made an integral part of the service. In course of
time the Lord's Prayer, being considered formal, was also omitted. The
exposition of a chapter, or part of it, developed into the lecture before
sermon. On Sabbaths, the minister thus came to have two lectures
and two sermons, which tended to make worship in unventilated
buildings wearisome afflictions of the flesh. On a week day another
sermon was preached — in some parishes two days were set apart for
Introduction preaching — while on another, catechising took place.- Another innova-
ParaphraseT' ^'^'^ '" i65owas the discarding of the old Scottish Psalm Book, in
order to introduce the revised edition of the ' New Paraphrase,' by
Francis Rouse ; and this poor production, rendered more obnoxious
by the puerile custom of the precentor reading out each line before
he sang it, resulted in the deterioration of congregational singing.
Organs were no longer approved of. What was worse, the confusion
and bitterness gendered in the land during the internecine wars, and
the deposition of so many pastors, resulted in the discontinuance of
the Lord's Supper for years in some parishes ; while the spiritual
tone of the masses was not improved by the example of the
Cromwellian soldiery, who frequently converted the churches into
stables and barracks, although others, of the type of Nehemiah
Solsgrace, on occasion doffed their weapons of war in the pulpit
before beginning their holy harangues. According to a contem-
porary, a fit of preaching came on Cromwell twice a day like a fit of
ague. All these innovations tended to exalt the human element in
' Napier, Memoirs, i. App. L.
- John Makgill, in Cupar, in 1654 had services on Sabbalh, Tuesday, and Friday,
catechised two days in town, one in country, besides doing other duties: Scott, Fasti, iv. 461.
THE COUNTRY IN SEVENTEENTH CENTURY 115
the service at the expense of the divine — the topical conceptions of innovations in
the preacher taking the place of the two chapters ordered to be read l^^^es
each Sabbath, of the inspiring psalms, of the essence of the faith con-
centrated in the Creed. The national idiom changed. Men went to
hear a preacher — not to worship. The temple had lost its character.
Presbytery had taken root in Scotland, and all the efforts of
the hierarchy and of the Carolan government could not dislodge it.
Hence Sir George Mackenzie in his Vindication of the Government
of Charles Second^ averred, 'The Reader will be astonished when
we inform him that the way of Worship in our Church differed
nothing from what the Presbyterians themselves practised (except
only, that we used the Doxologie, the Lords Prayer, and in Baptism
the Creed, all which they rejected). We had no Ceremonies,
Surplice, Altars, Cross in Baptisms, nor the meanest of those things
which would be allowed in England by the Dissenters, in way of
Accomodation.' Burnet, when minister at Saltoun, East Lothian,
was wont to use the Liturgy, as did Principal Monro in Edinburgh
University, and some curates in Ayrshire."
Quakerism spread under the tolerant regime of Cromwell, but ' dis-
haunting of ordinances, professing quakaristrie, and resetting persons of
that sect ' became a serious ecclesiastical offence visited by penalties.^
At this point it is opportune for the reader to consider a brief The gentlemen
account of the chief personages and classes whom he will see in full jV ^ estora-
perspective upon the tragic stage during the ' Reign of Terror,' now
to be described. A mere outline of the lives, principles, and practices
of these unrestrained profligates in high places ought to be sufficient
to create the impression that the chronic state of rebellion in Scotland
was not to be wondered at, was more than justifiable, was indeed
' London, 1691, p. 9.
^ Crichton, Mem. of Blackader, 104, 2nd edit., note, citing authorities : Burnet ; Foxcroft,
SuppL, 471 ; Presby. Inquisition, 27 (Lond., i6gi) ; Cramond, letter, Scotsman, 29th August
1890 ; Hewison, letter, Scotsman, 24th May 1907 ; Sage, Case of the Present Afflicted Clergy
(Lond., 1690), Pref. ; Grub, iii. 217. Buniet, however, qualified his statement of the practice
thus : ' I was the only man that I heard of in Scotland that used the forms of the common
praier, not reading, but repeating them' : Foxcroft, SuppL, 471.
^ Nicoll, 250; Record of Exercise of Alford, 06 and Index, 407 note.
ii6 THE COVENANTERS
imperative, and that the untamable preachers and men of the
moss hags — all defects duly appraised — were on the whole patterns
of forbearance, toleration, and humanity, without equals in similar
circumstances.'
According to Hallam, ' The Court of James i. was incomparably
the most disgraceful scene of profligacy which this country has ever
witnessed ; equal to that of Charles ii. in the laxity of female virtue,
and without any sort of parallel in some other respects.'''
Charles ii. With disgust all right-minded Scots thought of their ruler,
Charles ii., sitting on his far-off throne, odious, vicious, repulsive-
looking with his snuff-plugged nose. The story of his vulgar
amours was a commonplace. No Lely could refine that face, no
Clarendon that hideous character. Charles was absolutely devoid of
friendship, morality, and religion. He idolised the flesh and became
a victim to the most debased passions. He justified and patronised
the worst forms of carnality. His pessimism led him to believe that no
one did good except for self-interest. A secularist, he shook off Pres-
byterianism as a viper, utilised Episcopacy as the readiest political
tool, and finally put on Popery as a comfortable shroud to die in.*
James II. His royal brother, James, afterwards King, was a Bohemian not a
whit better than the King, only less audacious in his amours, since he
paid more painfully for them, and a trifle more honest, inasmuch as
he sooner owned Popery, which was the prevailing interest at Court.*
From the standpoint of the Puritans, whom he hated, he is not
inaccurately described on the gravestone of James Harkness, in
Dalgarno, one of the persecuted, as 'that Beist the Duke of York."
All readers know of the painted seraglios which these Defenders of
the Faith set up in the national palaces, and of the vicious cabals
which met at midnight in ' Mistress Palmer's Lodging.' Macaulay's
picture of that Court, as lewd as Nero's, suffices.*^ The rhyming
satirist, who chronicled the slaughter of the London beadle by ' The
' Cf. pp. 4, 5 and notes. s Const. Hist., i. 332.
3 Burnet, Hist., ii. 466-74 ; Foxcroft, Suppl, 48-50, 142.
* Foxcroft, 50-2, 78. 6 Review of Hallam' s Const. Hist.
THE COUNTRY IN SEVENTEENTH CENTURY 117
Three Dukes,' the royal bastards, declared the impotence of justice
thus : —
' Yet shall Whitehall, the innocent, the good,
See these men dance all daubed with lace and blood. '^
Scotland has enough to answer for. In Parliamentary circles there
were the royal Commissioner, Middleton, risen from a pike to a
peerage, and his associates, all beggars on horseback, living in a
bacchanalian paradise, plundering on all hands, and never so
deliriously drunk as to become incapable of conducting an adminis-
tration which aggrandised themselves and plunged the nation into
penury. Greater power lay in the hands of Lauderdale, Secretary Lauderdale.
of State, an uncouth learned savage, about to develop into a bare-
faced adulterer, toper, and inquisitor. Contemporaries left an
uninviting portrait of this great but disagreeable statesman, with his
red head, fiery face, spectacled nose, gross cheeks, thick sensual
lips, and blubbering tongue, speaking vulgar English in a most
offensive manner, with his hand always rifling the King's snuff-box,
and his cup filled with a disgusting liquor by the tricky courtiers,
who wished to illustrate his incomparable obsequiousness to the
King." We shall see him and his shameless consort, 'the Bess of
old Noll,' together with his brother Maitland of Hatton, hectorino-
and plundering Scotland. Yet Lauderdale it was that Sharp and
his co-prelates said they were delighted to serve as the saviour of
their Church. The Duke of Hamilton accused Hatton of ' Injustice
and brutalety palpable to all persons.'^
In John, sixth Earl of Rothes, Lauderdale had an accomplice Rothes.
who rivalled Silenus at the cask and Faunus in the indecent oratifi-
cation of every base appetite, until this notorious adulterer was 'either
always sick or drunk.' ^ His oaths were malefic indeed, if they were
as foully mouthed as they were badly spelled in his extant unique
■ Poetns on Affairs of State, i. 147.
- Ailesbury, Memoirs, i. 14. >■ Hist. MSS. Com. Rep., xi. App. vi. 151.
* Burnet, i. 73, 186, 187 ; ii. 310. ' The Earle of Rothes is put in the castle on a most
shameful occasion,' adultery with Lady Howard : Baillie, Letters, iii. 367, an. 1658.
ii8 THE COVENANTERS
Scandalous letters. The editor of the Lauderdale Papers concluded that ' with
aristocracy. Rothcs extortlon appears to have been the only object, and brutality
the only method.'' The Earl of Loudoun, whose early piety and
promise charmed Samuel Rutherford, fell into adultery." The Duke
of Richmond (Lennox) was immoral and profane."' The story of
Southesk is too abominable to repeat.'' The Earl and Countess of
Menteith accused each other of adultery and bigamy before the High
Courts.'' The story ran that the Earl of Eglinton, condemned to the
stool of repentance, with a delightful assurance which would have
charmed the Ayrshire bard, declined to sit anywhere else afterwards,
because he thought it the best seat and himself the best man in the
church.'^ It is not recorded what Abercromby, Balvaird, Durie, the
third Duke of Hamilton, and others of their class thought of their
prominence in the same place. Ross," Lindores, Kinnear, General
James Wemyss, General Dalyell, Captain Bruce, and many others of
the nobility and gentry were guilty of sins of the flesh. ^ Christian
Hamilton was beheaded at the Cross of Edinburgh in November
1679 for killing with a sword James, Lord Forester, who in drink
criminally assaulted her.'* Robertson of Athole was 'an incestuous
and excommunicate person,' and escheated by Parliament.'" The
aristocracy was not totally vicious. The Earls of Kincardine and
Tweeddale were positively good ; Crawford was indiscreet ; Lome
was on his good behaviour, although he could recommend torture
for the Whigs. Ancram was a man 'of small fortune, and of no
principles either as to religion or virtue,' according to Burnet. '^ The
heirs to Eglinton, Murray, and Kenmure were wanton lads. The
young Earl of Leven died in 1664, after a carouse with the Earl of
> Airy, Laud. Pap., i. Pref. xii. - Burnet, i. 72 ; Lament, 38.
' Row, Blair, 420. * Burnet, i. 406.
' Book of Adjournal, 4tli August 1684. " Burnet, i. 273 note.
' ' My Lord Ross, a good young youth, as was supposed, fallen in adulterie with his child's
nurse' : Baillie, Letters, iii. 366, an. 1658.
s Baillie, iii. 366 ; Lamont, 10, 13, 18, 84 ; Bimis Papers ; Presby. of St. Andrews Minute
Book. " Fountainhall, Hist. Notices, i. 231, 232.
'" Balfour, Annals, iv. 207. Lord Kinnoul died of 'glengore' in 1650: Lamont, 17.
" Hist., ii. 29.
THE COUNTRY IN SEVENTEENTH CENTURY 119
Dundee. The whole of society was infected with loose principles,
from University chairs to cot houses.^
The gentry were bankrupt in estate as well as in morals, and the Bankrupt
persecution of the thrifty mercantile and agricultural classes became ^^" ^^'
the only lucrative business to which they could turn to retrieve their
fortunes. The story is sickening, and it throws a strange sidelight
on the national struggle to read how the nobles, Annandale, Airlie,
Atholl, Drumlanrig and others were ' dependent on fines to save
their fortunes.' - The creditors of Annandale stayed his bankruptcy
by giving him time to exact fines from the rebels. It was easy
getting men to farm the wages of sin. The Duke of Hamilton
became chief publican in due course. Queensberry flourished and
built Drumlanrig Castle when he was in office. The vultures nested
in the Halls of Justice, and the Lord Advocate did not blush to fleece
the timorous.^ When ruining the Dissenters was the order of the
day, exactors like bankrupt Carmichael of Easter Thurston, who just
escaped the squinting eyes of Burly at Magus Moor, got the fines
of the peasantry, so long as the Commissioners took one-half of the
plunder of landed estates, while the other half went to the Crown.*
Parasitism became infectious. Hunger for land, greed of money, the
coveting of movables tainted all from duke to dragoon. Argyll
plundered Huntly's estate ; Middleton expected Argyll's; Lauderdale
and his brother Hatton became rich by everything they touched ;
Aberdeen and Queensberry waited for the ill-gotten gains the coiner
Hatton had to disgorge ; Sharp got Inchaffray, but handed it over to
the victors of Rullion Green ; Dalyell legally obtained Caldwell, but
illegally seized the marriage portion of its lady as well; Glencairn
got Dinmurchie ; Perth got Melville's lands ; Drummond, Claver-
house, and Nithsdale respectively got Kersland, Freuch, and
Whyteside, from which zealous Covenanters had been evicted.
Lesser officials grabbed what they could manage to remove
' Baillie, iii. 348, 284 ; Lament, 35, 69.
^ Rothes to Lauderdale in 1666 : Lauti. Pa/>., i. 237, 257. ^ Qmond, i. 172.
■* Privy Council Warninl, nth March 1679; Wodrow MSS., xliii. 26.
I20 THE COVENANTERS
unmolested.' The Treasury was in the hands of villains, according to
Moray."
Ruffians of The biographer of the Lord Advocates does not present a flatter-
ing picture of the politicians and lawyers of the Restoration period.
He depicts cruel, avaricious ruffians.^ They are continu.illy drunk,
both at the Council-table and at home. When the ghastly shrunken
head of Montrose was taken down for burial, the Lord Advocate
gave a feast in honour of the event, and one of the guests drank
himself to death. The Council-chamber reeked like a charnel-house.
The air was tainted with the smell of blood. The judges in a circuit
town drank the Devil's health, at midnight, at the town's cross.
Further, he describes the Lord Clerk-Register as 'Sir Archibald
Primrose, astute, wary, and unscrupulous ' ; and the Lord Advocate
as ' Fletcher, the " Inquisitor-general " whose cruelty could be averted
only by a bribe.'* Ermine and silk were soiled with mud and blood.
Fletcher fell a victim to his own rapacity and unscrupulousness, and
was forced to resign, 14th September 1664. His successor, Sir John
Nisbet, Lord Dirleton, was no more immaculate as Lord Advocate
and Judge, and being accused of collusion and fraud was also
compelled to resign in 1677. Omond sums up his character thus:
' At a time when bad men were common, he was one of the worst ;
and it does not appear that, in the course of his public career, he
ever did one deed which lightens the darkness of his servile and
mercenary life."' Dirleton was succeeded by George Mackenzie,
who deservedly earned the nickname 'The Bluidy Mackenzie,' upon
whom so many left their martyr blood.
These legislators did not lack for executors and executioners to
carry out their designs and dooms. The noblest of birth in the land
lent them service. Foreign trade in war was dull, and many blood-
stained hands idle at home were ready to draw blades for pay.
To get a regiment (and the chance to hold up the pay), a troop, a
commission of any sort, a collectorship of fines or of imposts, made
' For later grants, cf. postea ; Act. Pari. Scot., viii. 582.
2 Laud. Pap., ii. 68. » Omond, i. 170. ' Ib:d., 177. '' Ji'd., 186, 198.
THE COUNTRY IN SEVENTEENTH CENTURY 121
the lucky one a soldier of fortune in a true sense. We mark Thomas
Dalyell of Binns, fresh from the Polish wars, dubbed ' the Muscovy 'The Muscovy
Beast ' because he was so boorish, brutal, and overbearing. ' Dalyell
is a rough man,' wrote Burnet to Sheldon, ' but of incomparable
loyalty and integrity, a faithful friend to all that serve the King or
Church.' > In his wild youth a brawler on the streets of Linlithgow;
he brawls on for years for blood and booty, inventing war scares to
frighten the Government. He also drinks 'hoolie and fairly,' and,
in his cups and out, howls for blood, for liberty to roast, hang,
exterminate the Covenanters.^ Hackston of Rathillet, in an extant
letter, records an instance of Dalyell's brutality at Lanark, where
he even threatened to roast Hackston, then suffering from his
untended wounds got at Ayrsmoss." Dalyell, who was never married,
and left his property to his illegitimate children, was banned by
Cargill in the Torwood Excommunication 'for his lewd and impious
life, led in adultery and uncleanness from his youth, with a contempt
of marriage.'^ On the field Dalyell and Drummond acted like
bandits.'^ Sir William Drummond, Dalyell's comrade on foreign
fields, exhibited a rapacity which brought him under suspicion and
into prison as a fomenter of rebellion.'' Two prime hacksters, before
the gory days of Claverhouse and Lag, were Sir William Ballantine
and Sir James Turner. The memory of the atrocities committed by Sir James
these licensed bandits has never died out. A Galloway minister at
the time informed Sir Robert Moray that ' Turner was a saint to
Balantine.'' For beggaring the westlands by their unparalleled
extortions and cruelties both saint and sinner were dismissed by the
Government. Burnet's true portrait of the mercenary Turner,
punctilious only in obeying his orders, and happy in his cups, is not
pleasing, and explains the hatred of the peasantry, who nicknamed
Turner ' Bloody Bite-the-Sheep."*
' Aug. 9, 1667 : Laud. Pap., u. xlvi. App.
' Linlithgow Burgh Records, July 1639 ; Laud. Pap., q.v. ' Wodrow, Hist., iii. 219 note.
* Cloud of Witnesses, 510, Thomson's edit. ; Binns Family Papers.
' Laud. Pap., ii. 65. « Row, Blair, 552. " Laud. Pap., ii. 83.
' Burnet, i. 378, 440. Moray writing to Lauderdale corroborates Burnet ; cf. Laud. Pap.,
ii. 65, 82, 83. Uefoe, Memoirs, 208 : 'This butcher, for such he was rather than a soldier.'
VOL. IL tj
122
THE COVENANTERS
John Graham
ofCIaverhouse.
Carnal
Carolan
cavaliers.
Of the same militant and accipitrine order was John Graham of
Claverhouse, a greedy rather than a needy soldier, anxious to be
famous like his idol and kinsman, James, Marquis of Montrose, and
also to found a family. With this itch for land and honours on him,
Graham chaffered for the title of Menteith, sighed for its fair heiress,
Eleanor Graham, swore a dragoon's oath as to his pure love, lied to
Oueensberry, to whom he often clamoured for ' movabilles,' and never
lost the main chance to promote himself, although his track was
stained with blood.* Oueensberry accused him of upholding the
fines and made him disgorge ; he retaliated by accusing Queens-
berry's brother of defrauding the soldiery." The dexterity which
Claverhouse displayed in keeping himself out of the clutches of jealous
opponents led contemporaries to conclude that he was a noble
specimen of the swashbucklers of his day ; so Burnet sums up his
character thus — 'a proud and passionate man, though in all other
respects a man of virtue and probity.'^
To say that Claverhouse was better than his comrades is faint
praise indeed, when we mark his associates in butchery with which,
as soldiers, they had less to do than Dalyell and Claverhouse, who
were most active members of the Privy Council. For example,
Captain Andrew Bruce of Earlshall, whose only epitaph is found on
martyrs' tombs, was a vile specimen of the Carolan cavalier. The
Kirk-session of Leuchars charged him with stealing the endowments
left by Alexander Henderson to the parish school ; and the Presbytery
of St. Andrews pressed a worse indictment — stealing the virtue of
one of his own household.' With some satisfaction the chronicler
of Coltness recorded that Irvine of Bonshaw, the captor of Cargill,
' in a drucken quarrel at Lanrick was stabbed to death on a dunghill
by one of his own gange . a proper exit for such a blood-hound.''
' Black Pate ' Graham of Inchbrakie, kinsman of Claverhouse, already
referred to, ' satisfied ' the Church for sins of the flesh." The cruelties
' Book ofMenieit/i, ii. 197 ; Hist. MSS. Com. Rep., XV. viii. 266, 267, 276.
'' Tarry, John Graham of Clavcrhnusc, 182, 188. ' Foxcroft. StippL, 305.
* Leuchars Kirk-scss. Rec, vol. i. ; St. And. /'res. Ret:, iv. 151.
^ Coltness Collections, 76. " Page ; note.
JUHN GRAHAM OF CLAVERHOUSE - VISCOUNT DUNDEE.
THE COUNTRY IN SEVENTEENTH CENTURY 123
of Grierson of Lag, and the oppressions of other persecutors, stand on
record. Defoe gives an instance of a humane officer protesting
against the brutal conduct of his fellows.' Claverhouse, in hisThctoieof
peculiar frenzy, desired his countrymen to think well of him as a *^
sacrificial ' cleanser ' — the chief of a new Order of Religious, a just
Caiaphas clad in iron jack and ' scull ' — at the national altar slaying
Whigs to stay the plague of Whiggery from destroying other inno-
cents. With such rude and lewd mercenaries at the head of regiments
and troops of soldiers paid sixpence a day — when their officers did
not defraud them of their pay — there was little likelihood of any other
state of matters than that described by contemporary chroniclers and
clerks of court— namely, abuse of the people, uniformed aristocrats
stealing from poor packmen on the roads, justices fleecing the
defenceless, and high officials tampering with the coinage. There
was ample justification for Stewart declaring that 'worse than bears
or tigers were let loose upon innocent families.'"
The Church was in a worse condition than the State. Sheldon Archbishop
was Primate in England, Sharp in Scotland. Their accomplishments
can be cited in a word. Sheldon gave his Church the Act of Uni-
&
formity, Sharp gave his — ' the boots.' According to Burnet, Sheldon
' seemed to have no great sense of religion nor of the true concerns of
the Church, of which he spoke commonly rather as of a matter of
policy than of conscience.'^
Sharp appears in his true colours, verily the ' base, clattering Archi.uhop
claw-back ' of his contemporaries ; to the Church, 'a knave/wr j««^';
to his friends, a spy ; to his foes, a persecutor ; to his peers, a caitiff,
whom they used but despised : in fine, one of the meanest Scots that
ever wore a holy robe.'
A policy compromising, soothing, compassionate, did not seem to Character of
appeal to the better instincts left in Sharp. We have no mention ^'^'
of him remonstrating with the flagitious men of the age, as out-
spoken Wariston and Guthrie did with Charles 11., and as even the
' Memoirs, 281. - CoUness Collections, 76.
^ Foxcroft, Suppl., drj. ^ Airy, Laud. Pap., Introd. x.
124 THE COVENANTERS
latter and Richard Baxter did with tippling Lauderdale. We hear
no voice lifted up against the recurrent tragedies of his time ; no
piteous appeal for the victims of the rope and axe, for the broken in
boots and the tortured by thumbscrews ; no effort to redeem the men,
mothers, and babes who, often forgotten altogether, lay starved and
rotting in noisome tolbooths ; and no mercy for the gifted pastors
who were held in unholy and unwholesome ward.
Like Laud, he had as little sympathy with the sacrifices of the
lawgivers as with the victims of the lawless. The weight of his hand
and the strength of his will was in every blow with which the hang-
man drove the wedges home in the torture vaults of the Parliament
House. If Sharp did not keep the pardons back, for which he
was blamed,^ he pressed forward no petitions for mercy. An infinite
charity could not veneer the character of Sharp with a semblance
of humanity.
Others of the prelates were exceedingly carnal. Archbishop
Alexander Burnet was not secretive enough with his illicit loves to
please his clerical namesake."
Bishop Paterson, Bishop of Galloway, signalised his episcopate among
the wild Whigs by inventing or re-introducing the thumbscrews.*
' This Paterson was one of the most notorious liars in his time, and
vicious, base, and loose liver.'* Paterson was 'The Bishop Band-
strings ' whose obscenity is lashed by George Ridpath.^ He was
dismissed from the Privy Council in 1684 for obtaining a pension on
false pretences and keeping churches vacant, so that, as patron, he
might draw the stipends for his own pocket.*
Bishop FairfuU, a teller of ' merry tales ' which disgusted Leighton,
was 'scarce free of scandal.' ' Even the nervous Leighton approved
of exterminating rebel Whigs.
' Row, Blair, 504. - Burnet, i. 371 : 'He kept his mistresses very avowedly.'
' Mackail to Adams, i6th November 1678 ; Cai. ^fatc Pap., Charles 11., 408.
* Row, Blair, 542.
* An Answer to the Scotch Presbyterian Eloquence, 87.
" Hist. Observes, 133. ^ Burnet, i. 238 ; Foxcroft, SuppL, 16.
THE COUNTRY IN SEVENTEENTH CENTURY 125
The Episcopal incumbents who dispossessed the Presbyterian character of
,, , . the Episcopal
pastors were, generally speaking, clergy.
'Hireling wolves whose gospel is their maw.'
This terrible indictment is endorsed by friends and foes alike. Bishop
Gilbert Burnet designated the Episcopal clergy ' a disgrace to orders,'
and ' dregs and refuse.' The Earl of Tweeddale, in his correspondence
with Lauderdale in 1670, corroborated what the authors o{ Naphtali
and A Hind Let Loose called them — 'scatterers and devourers, not
pastors of the flock.' ^ Even the bibulous Turner confessed his shame
at serving such ' debauched and worthless ' creatures, a squeamishness
which, incredible to tell, also overcame the bloodthirsty Dalyell."
Gilbert Burnet's verdicts and generalisations were founded on
sufficient data and personal experience of the men and times. Early
in 1666, then the young minister of Saltoun, he issued A Memorial o/^'^t'^--^'^
Diverse Grievances and Abuses in this Church, copies of which he
sent to some of the bishops.^ He animadverted severely on the evils
of the time, the corruptions of the clergy, and the vices of the gentry
and the masses. He accused the prelates of being non-resident,
seldom preaching, becoming politicians, acting with intolerance and
pride, and sacrilegiously peculating Church property. He blamed
many of the regular and indulged clergy for Simoniacal practices,
entering the Church for gain, for being haughty, worldly-minded
frequenters of taverns, who worried the people with ' long preach-
ments' of 'mean stuff,' neglected the Communion, made dull, dis-
orderly prayers, and gave out a few lines of psalms to ' slow, long
tunes.' He timed the downfall of the masses to the advent of the
bishops : ' At your coming in there hath been a deluge of wickedness,
that hath almost quite overrtowen the land ; scoffing at religion,
swearing, drunkenness, and uncleanness can not but meet you where
ever yow are.' For this plain speaking the young minister barely
escaped deposition on the motion of Sharp himself
' Liiud. Paf)., ii. 207. - Burnet, i. 426. ^ Misc. Scot. Hist., ii. 340-58.
* Burnet, Hist., i. 387-9 ; Suppl., 472; Clarke and Foxcroft, A Life of Gilbert Burnet,
62-8 (Cambridge, 1907).
126 THE COVENANTERS
Character of On the Other hand, the outed ministers and evicted rebels no
clergy. doubt retained a large portion of the old Adam while on their wet
and weary wanderings ever facing death ; and their freedom from the
spirit and practice of revenge would have testified to a special
accession of supernatural power. We shall find one exasperated
' Stickit Minister,' James Mitchell, drawing a bad shot at Archbishop
Sharp ; another pietist, Skene, justifying the poisoning of the balls of
his blunderbuss ; the hunters of merciless Carmichael murderously
grounding the very Primate on Magus Moor ; and a few cases of the
shedding of the blood of soldiers, curates, and informers, in open fray,
midnight raids, and tavern brawls ; but these indefensible acts, even
were all reckoned to be blots on the fair escutcheon of the Covenant,
are out of all ratio to the bloodshed and excesses laid to the account
of the ruthless suppressors o( the Covenanters. Bearing in mind the
rudeness of the age, the illegal acts of the King and his subordinates,
and the provocation received, one is astonished that retaliation was
not oftener resorted to, that offences were so infrequent, and that the
persecuted exhibited so much Christian restraint. There is scarcely
Corrupt rulers, a parallel to it. Rulers who demand good subjects must afford
good examples. Charles ii., Buckingham, and Lauderdale would
have corrupted a ' Pagan suckled in a creed outworn.' Their in-
famous associates appear more like the flowers of T/te Newgate
Calendar than the responsible governors of a civilised state and
supporters of a Christian Church. The modern detractor of the
Covenanters and eulogiser of their oppressors, who calls such men his
' cheerful friends,' keeps strange company among the dead.* We
shall see these votaries of Vice sitting at the fountainhead of every
purifying stream that (lowed through Scottish life, save one, and
pouring in their vile poison, which could not fail to make a nauseous
taste in the mouths of what poor clergy and citizens were left in the
miserable land. The stream of influence that welled out of tTie
Covenant they were not allowed to vitiate. The struggle was not
for a form of Church government merely, for the maintenance of the
' Lang, Hist, of Scot., iii. J05.
THE COUNTRY IN SEVENTEENTH CENTURY 127
nostrums of illiterate fanatics, or for the justification of obstinate dema-
gogiies. The fight was for freedom, morality, virtue, and religion. No Aims of
candid student can evade the fact that agitators like Guthrie, Cargill, agitators.
Cameron, and Renwick, and fighters like Hamilton, Balfour, Hackston,
Paton and others, in order to save their country, families, and
innocents, from corrupters, seducers, and destroyers, resisted unto
blood that Government, which they considered to be an agency
of Satan. These purists of the Covenant, at least, do not figure in
the records of scandal. Yet because the incorruptible ministers
manfully denounced those Royalist scapegraces, and maintained a
high standard of morality and religion, they have been frequently
discredited by those who are ignorant of the vicious environ-
ments in which they contended. In these dark strata were being
generated the disturbing movements which enflamed a once peaceable
community. The Presbyterian ministers, by their honest ministries,
pure lives, and creditable writings, form a contrast to other leaders of
this epoch, and these attainments rightly gained for them the esteem
in which the populace generally held them. According to Burnet,
although they were ' a sour and supercilious people, their faults were
not so conspicuous.' Our researches prove that their antagonists
very seldom 'streaked honey in their mouths.' An impartial account
of the lives of the persecutors will always form a sufficiently black
framework wherein to set the picture of many saintly lives offered
for Christ's Kingdom, Crown, and Covenants.*
' For an account of the literary men living between 1625 and 1690, and of their works, see
Appendix i. in this volume.
128 THE COVENANTERS
CHAPTER XXII
RECONSTRUCTION OF THE CHURCH
Various parties The plot was now laid for the final assault on Scottish liberties and
;I! ,lf, ^" for the realisation of the dream of the Stuart kinos of Britain. The
ID lOUI. O
times were auspicious. The populace was tired of a rigid religion
which conferred no temporal benefits ; the gentry, bankrupt, servile,
and growing habituated to English manners and customs, hung
around the Commissioner's throne clamouring for ratifications of all
sorts, knowing that to oppose the Crown was to frustrate their own
designs ; while the clergy were divided into two main classes — true-
blue Presbyterians who saw a jailer haunting every church, and a
party who were of the opinion of Robert Leighton, that the external
apparatus of the faith was of little importance so long as the faith
itself was professed, some even approving of the principle by which
Gavin Young, minister of Ruthwell, held his charge happily through
all the changes between 1617 and 1671, and thus expressed by him :
' Wha wad quarrel wi' their brose for a mote in them ? '
Shortly after the Parliament of 1661 began its reconstructive work,
the leaders of the Church in Edinburgh pointed out to Middleton that
some of the new Rescissory Acts abrogated statutes legalising the
Covenants and Westminster Standards, and also other Acts enumer-
ating indictable offences, and they overtured Parliament to renew
these indispensable laws.' The Presbytery of Edinburgh sent a
Committee to Middleton to appeal to him to constrain the legislature
to delay considering a statute so revolutionary as the Rescissory Act
was. Middleton politely cajoled the deputation until he got time to
' Wodrow, i. 1 10.
RECONSTRUCTION OF THE CHURCH 129
have the statute passed. Professor David Dickson, also sent to Clerical op-
remonstrate, was cavalierly received and told by the Commissioner reconstnjction
that he was not afraid of papers by ministers, a remark which drew °f Church,
from Dickson the biting retort — ' he well knew his Grace was no
coward since the Bridge of Dee.' Impolitic then was this rejoinder,
which raked up memories of the time when Middleton fought for the
Covenant. Middleton was not to be moved. The ministers next
addressed Lauderdale, whose love to Mother-Church they praised,
hoping through his intervention with the King to have the incoming
tide turned back by means of a General Assembly, which they desired
to be convened for the settlement of peace. Lauderdale, too, was a
broken reed. No longer an advocate for Covenants, he now viewed
Presbyterianism as a temporary expedient. Besides, this statesman
had a correspondent in Sharp, who disavowed the resolutions of
Douglas, Dickson, and Wood, and pressed a conjunction of Lauderdale
and Middleton 'for good to poor Scotland,' while he himself in
hypocrisy prayed : ' Let me bear the punishment maybe intended for
Mr. Guthrie, who hath made the frame of our religion heer to be nothing
else but a contexture of treason and sedition.' ' The King was person-
ally indifferent, except to the democratic aspect of the Church question.
In April the Synod of Glasgow and Ayr met and considered the
situation. William Guthrie, minister of Fenwick, failed to persuade Guthrie of
all his brethren to transmit a suitable address to the Crown which he ^"^^"^ '
had prepared ; dissent on the ground of inexpediency and inoppor-
tuneness being expressed by James Hamilton, Cambusnethan ; Robert
Wallace, Barnweill ; and James Ramsay, Linlithgow (representative
from Lothian), afterwards the Bishops of Galloway, the Isles, and
Dunblane respectively. A milder declaration, emphasising adherence
to Presbyterianism, was unanimously agreed to, even by the Episcopal
dissentients. They adjourned this meeting, and on assembling again
found themselves proclaimed as an illegal convocation.
The Synod of Fife also met to prepare a petition craving the Synod of Fife,
Commissioner to have an Act passed establishing the Scots Church, ^" * ^" '
' Sharp to Lauderdale, 25th April 1661 : Laitig MSS., 784.
VOL. II. R
I30
THE COVENANTERS
Synod of
Dumfries
dissolved.
Erastianism
of Aberdeen
Synod.
Reformed and Presbyterian, and to draw up a pastoral admonition
suitable in the crisis. They had passed from the first business to the
second when Rothes rose, and, in the King's name, ordered them to
desist and disperse. Taken by surprise, the Synod broke up without
a protest.
In a similar manner the Earls of Queensberry and Hartfell, in
sweet revenge for their unforgotten imprisonment, dissolved the
Synod of Dumfries, which agreed to an Act deposing compilers. The
Earl of Galloway dispersed the Synod of Galloway, which had
prepared a prolix, wild, Whig manifesto in favour of Covenants and
uniformity, the moderator duly protesting against this intrusion of
Galloway. The Earl of Callendar and Sir Archibald Stirling of
Garden broke up the Synod of Lothian and Tweeddale. This Synod
purged itself of several members of the party of Protesters,' but
Callendar's request that the Synod should re-introduce the old
customs of Scripture reading, reciting the Lord's Prayer, singing
' Glore to the Father,' and saying the Creed in baptism, was
refused."
In the Synod of Ross, Thomas Hog, minister at Kiltearn, and
James Eraser of Ling, elder, were challenged to disown the Protesta-
tion, and, on their refusal. Hog was deposed and Eraser was suspended
from the eldership.
The Synod of Aberdeen exhibited the powerful influence exer-
cised on the ministry of the north by the Aberdeen doctors. This
Synod acquiesced in the recent statutes, and asked the legislature to
petition the King to settle the affairs of the Church according to his
own conception of the warrant of Scripture, the example of the early
Church, and his own sense of the fitness of things. Never had
monarchy such champions of its divine prerogative as these ecclesi-
astics by the Bridge of Dee, who now showed that they had
recovered from that ' rigidity ' resulting from the coercive and well-
' Livingstone of Biggar, Greig of .Skirling, Porteoiis of Covington, Donaldson of
Dolphinton, also Hall of Kirkliston. At the same time Weir of Linlithgow and Creighton
of Bathgate were deprived. ' Grub, iii. i8o.
RECONSTRUCTION OF THE CHURCH 131
paid efforts of Andrew Cant and his associates.' Burnet, who was
present at this meeting, records that he heard one of its members
say ' that no man could decently oppose those words, since by that he
would insinuate that he thought presbytery was not conform to these '
— the Word of God and the practice of the primitive Church. Thus
even Presbyterians were craftily drawn into supporting a motion for
this address to the Commissioner.'^
One result of the meeting of the Scots councillors in London was New church
the instruction given to Lauderdale and Sharp to draft and dispatch '^^'^ * '°"'
to Middleton a proclamation on Church affairs, which was duly issued
on loth June.^ According to Sharp, it was Hyde's ' present expedient '
until the time was ripe for that final rescript of which Middleton was
expectant.* It was a cunningly devised document calling attention
to the recent statute of 28th March, in which it was resolved to
maintain the Church as it was established by James, and Charles i.,
and continuing the same ' in the meantime ' until the King had secured
it in 'a frame as shall be agreeable to the Word of God most suit-
able to monarchical government, and most complying with the public
peace and quiet of the kingdom.'
This letter to Middleton is worth quoting to show the progress Sharp's pro-
Sharp had made in his defection since he wrote to his friend f'^^^ '"
Drummond denying the truth of the whispers concerning his treachery.
On 19th March he wrote : ' No person heer or with you can say with-
out injuring of me that Ever I spoke or cooperated for introducing
a change.' Two days later he declares : ' But if a change come, I
make no question it will be grievous and bring on suffering upon many
honest men, in which I would be very loath to have any hand.'
Rather than witness the confusion he would change his country and
breathe a freer air, he declared.^ In the interval between the opening
of Parliament and his journey to London, early in May, Sharp had
been chagrined to see the Church ignored in the making of Acts bearing
' Cant was awarded /2000 for his labours in the north.
^ Burnet, i. 21S ; Grub, iii. 1S2. ^ Aldis, Lis/, 1713 ; Wodrow, i. 151.
* Sharp to Middleton, 21st May : Lait/i. Pap., ii. App. Ixxviii. ' //'it/., i. S9.
r.l2
THE COVENANTERS
Letter of
Sharp to
Middleton,
May i66i.
Middleton's
report to the
KinE.
on her welfare, but it can hardly be doubted that this solicitude for
the enslaved Scots Church does not wholly account for the terms of
the letter which follows : —
' He [Clarendon] spoke to me of the method to be usit for bringing
about our church settlement, and bid me give my opinion of a present
expedient, which, when I had offered, he was plesit to approve, so
did the bishops of London and Worcester ; and after consultation
with our Lords, it was agreed that Lauderdale and I should draw
a proclamation from the king to be sent to your grace, with which
I trust you will be satisfied . . . that the perfecting of the work may
be upon your hand from whom it had its beginning, and under whose
countenance and protection it must thrive and take rooting. . . . The
proclamation will suffice to the disposing of minds to acquiescence
to the king's pleasure . . . but now I trust all opposing designs are
dashed, and a foundation laid for a superstructure, which will render
your name precious to the succeeding generations.' '
The opinion that Sharp hoped to get an Assembly called to settle
on a modus vivendi is not borne out by this letter or by the proclama-
tion, which made no mention or promise of such a convocation. Nor
is Sharp's statement to Drummond (21st March) — ' I declare to you I
have not acted directly or indirectly for a change among us, nor have
I touched upon Church Government in sermons and conferences at
our Court or elsewhere ' — credible in face of the narrative relating the
contempt of Middleton for the trick played on the Presbytery of
Edinburgh, and of his own statement in May, that he had often been
conversing with Middleton on the subject.
The first session of the Parliament of [661 came to an end on
r2th July." On Middleton's return to Court to report progress, the
government of the land was left to the Privy Council. According
to Burnet, ' it was a mad, roaring time, full of extravagance ; and no
wonder it was so, when the men of affairs were almost perpetually
drunk.'* The Scottish delegates were still in London.^ Middleton
' London, 21st May 1661 : Laud. Pap., ii. App. C. Ixxviii.
- 1st January to t2th July : Act. Pari. Scot.., vii. 3-367. ' Hist., i. 220.
^ Row, Blair, 390.
RECONSTRUCTION OF THE CHURCH 133
gave to the King an account of his commission at a meeting of the
Scots Council in London, at which Clarendon was present.' Middleton
said, that since the Church of Scotland was now without a government
it behoved the King to settle one. Glencairn and Rothes declared
that 'six for one in Scotland longed for Episcopacy' — an assertion
which drew a direct denial from the testy Earl of Crawford, who
retorted that Presbytery had the ascendency. Lauderdale, who as yet
had not openly discarded his early choice, feeling his way, suggested
the middle and prudent course of taking counsel with the ecclesiastical
courts before settling the matter. Hamilton and Sir Robert Moray
supported this proposal, the former asserting that the King's promise
to the Presbyters of Edinburgh to continue the faith established had
prevented the rise of opposition to the Rescissory Acts. Middleton
demurred to this proposal on the ground that the verdict would not be
impartial, since the less influential clergy and elders 'durst not quarrel
the resolution of their Rabbis, who would not adhere to the oath.'
Clarendon finished the debate with the taunt — ' God preserve me from
living in a country where the church is independent from the state and
may subsist by their own Acts : for there all churchmen may be kings.' "
Thereupon the King of his own motion resolved to establish Charles re-
Episcopacy and to impose his uniformity upon the kingdoms this^gj'^^^"
time. Accordingly Lauderdale was instructed to write to the Privy Kpiscopacy.
Council ((4th August) intimating the King's desire for a better
harmony between the churches and ' our firm resolution to interpose
our royal authority for restoring of that church to its right government
by bishops,' and commanding them to inhibit synodical meetings, and
to mark those persons evilly disposed to the Crown and Government.
Yet not a year had passed since Lauderdale had written to Douglas
regarding 'our Mother Kirk,' that 'it is no small comfort to me, in
serving my master, to find that his Majesty is so fixt in his intention
not to alter anything in the government of that church,' and that he had
drawn a proclamation convening an Assembly (23rd October 1660).
To Edinburgh Glencairn, Rothes, and Sharp brought the fatal letter
' Mackenzie, Memoirs, 52. '^ /bid., 55, 56.
134 THE COVENANTERS
whose terms referred to the former communication of loth August 1660,
to the recent Act investing the Crown with power to settle ecclesias-
tical affairs, and to the King's resolution to restore the Church to the
position it held before the troubles began, and as it now stood settled
by law. The Privy Council met on 5th September, and after refusing
to accept the suggestion of Tweeddale and Kincardine that the King
should be asked to refer the matter first to the Synods, resolved to
Koyai decree Comply with the royal commands. Accordingly the regal fiat was, by
e'h Se'ptci.ibcr Command of the Privy Council, proclaimed at the Cross of Edinburgh
•66i- with the usual heraldic ceremony, in presence of the city magistrates,
on 6th September, and it was ordered to be read at every burgh
cross. The proclamation announced the abolition of Presbytery,
because of ' the unsuitableness thereof to his Majesty's monarchical
estate,' restored right government by bishops, enjoined compliance,
forbade clerical courts, banned all objectors, and ordained all magis-
trates to commit all nonconformists to prison. This edict, announcing
that the Acts since 1638 had been rescinded, became the interpreter of
the deceptive letter of August which promised the maintenance of a
church ' as it now stands settled by law.' Now the law on the Statute
Book in existence prior to 1638 legalised Episcopacy, and it was thus
revived.' Strong efforts were made to seduce the leading Resolu-
tioners from their allegiance to Presbytery, and promises of preferment
were held out to and refused by Douglas, Baillie, Wood, Dickson,
Ferguson, and others."
Degradatiun In a moment the Church had been degraded to the low estate
into which it had been thrust in the days of King James, when the
obsequious Spottiswood hailed new-born Prelacy as the happy
creation of his Majesty. The royal whim was now ' The Church's
one foundation.' ^
' Nicoll, 342 ; Mackenzie, Memoirs, 56-60; Wodrow, i. 230 ct scq. ; Grub, iii. 184 ; Row,
BlaiVy 392. ^ Wodrow, i. 215.
"' The councillors who surrendered the national liberties were Glencairn, Rothes, Montrose,
Morton, Hume, Eglinton, Moray, Linlithgow, Roxburgh, Haddington, Southesk, Wemyss,
Callendar, Sinclair, Dutifus, President Gilmour, Primrose, Ley. Blackhall, Niddrie, Alexander
liruce, Sir George Kinnaird, and Sir Robert Moray.
of Church.
RECONSTRUCTION OF THE CHURCH 135
The first exercise of the powers of the Privy Council was seen
in the interdicting Presbyteries meeting to ordain pastors without
Episcopal collation, and the citing the Presbytery of Peebles for
ignoring this injunction. At this juncture, a letter came to the Privy
Council from Lauderdale (7th September) enjoining the Council to
immure Tweeddale in Edinburgh Castle for treasonable speeches Tweeddaie
uttered at Guthrie's trial. This was done. After three weeks' '" p"^°°"
imprisonment Tweeddale was released, having given satisfactory
explanations of his conduct, on finding caution for 100,000 merks,
and remaining under surveillance. He was finally relieved in the
following May.
Consequent on instructions received from the King through
Lauderdale, the Privy Council, 9th January 1662, issued a proclama-
tion interdicting all clerical courts meeting until they were authorised
by the bishops, who were about to be appointed, deacons alone being
permitted to distribute the parochial alms in the interval.
In clerical circles the new policy had leaked out as early as April, Protestor
jiou L .^ ^- ^ • • !• Robert Baillie.
and when bharp was busy protesting his mgenuousness and mnocence
to Patrick Drummond, Robert Baillie wrote adjuring Lauderdale to
be no party to foisting Episcopacy on Scotland, and to persuading
the King 'to tak ministers heids,' as he would have 'to answer to
God for that grit sin and opening a door, which in hast will no be
closit, for persecution of the best persons and most loyal subjects that
ar in the thrie dominions.'' He closed the letter with these sad
words : ' If yow or Mr. Sharp, whom we trusted as our own soules,
have swerved towards Chancellor Hyde's principles, as now we see
many doe, you have much to answer for.'
This answer the men of Fife soon demanded from Sharp on his
appearance. He wrote from Crail Manse, on 6th September, that he
now stood for the maintenance of royal authority. About the same Biair accuses
time, the Presbytery of St. Andrews sent a deputation, consisting of J^^^.'^^'^ "
Robert Blair, and David Forret, minister of Kilconquhar, to interview
Sharp, to recount the then current report tliat he had already received
' l8lh April 1661 : Lauil Pap., i. 95 ; Baillie, Letters, iii. 458-60.
Blalr.
136 THE COVENANTERS
a patent appointing him Archbishop, to call upon him to repent for
his treachery and wicked ways, to depict the disasters which befell
previous occupants of the primatial throne, and to demand his refusal
of the crozier. Blair was eloquent : Sharp was taciturn. Persuasive
Blair, who had been able under the shadow of the scaffold to woo
and win to Jesus Christ the gay gallant, Nathaniel Gordon, entirely
failed with Sharp. Their meeting was futile, Sharp having deter-
mined ' to ride the ford where his predecessor drouned.' Blair left
Forret with Sharp, when the latter became atrabilious and vowed
the vengeance he afterwards took.^ Throwing away the cloak, Sharp
became bolder in public, essaying to cry the Covenants down, and
to seduce his friends from their allegiance to the Presbyterian faith
and forms, thus setting a snare for his opponent Blair.
Ejectment of The latter soon found himself in the noose so deftly set, being
cited to appear before the CouncU in October and November. His
sentence was, that he confine himself to his own chamber in Edinburgh,
and live unattended save by members of his own family. Under this
restraint Blair's health soon failed, and he had further to humiliate
himself by asking liberty from the Council to retire to Inveresk,
where with recuperated vigour he got leisure to write his projected
Covnnentary on the Book of Proverbs}
Blair's death. The parish church of St. Andrews was declared vacant, and soon
Sharp and Honeyman reigned there in Blair's stead. Petty persecu-
tions still awaited the estimable sufferer for conscience' sake in his
places of retirement in Kirkcaldy and Aberdour. When in the latter
place he was nearing his death in 1666, and in all likelihood lay
watching the little boats struggling in the offing,
' Half oure, half oure to Aberdour
Full fifty fathoms deep,'
he pointedly yet sympathetically expressed what so many sufferers for
Christ, Crown, and Covenant were yet to experience : ' O Sharp !
Sharp ! there is no rowing with thee ; Lord, open thine eyes, and
• Row, y?/rtz>-, 392. ■ Ibid., 402.
1666,
RECONSTRUCTION OF THE CHURCH 137
give thee repentance and mercy, if it be Thy will. ... I would not
exchange my condition, though I be now lying on my bed of
languishing and dying, with thine, O Sharp, for thy mitre and all
thy riches and revenues, nay, though all that 's betwixt thee and
me were red gold to the boot.' ^
The Kine and his advisers had the vacant sees to fill with suitable
dignitaries, and to reconstitute the cathedral chapters. Sharp took
credit to himself for keeping worse men out than those let into
office." All the nominees were staunch Resolutioners. None of the The new
Jacobite bishops were alive with the exception of Thomas Sydserf, svd°e'rf.
formerly Bishop of Galloway, the prosecutor of Samuel Rutherford,
and now almost a nonagenarian. The Church may have expected
his elevation to the primatial throne, and the promotion of clergy
who had remained faithful to their Episcopal vows. The advisers of
the Crown thought otherwise. Sydserf had not the appearance,
qualifications, no character to recommend him for the highest
dignity. The unenviable notoriety given to him by Drummond
of Hawthornden, who pilloried ' Galloway Tam, that squint-eyed,
stridling asse,' and ' Roman snakic viper,' as well as the injurious
verdict of the Glasgow Assembly, had damaged his popularity
at home, which he did not retrieve during his exile in England,
where he alienated the southern bishops by conferring orders
in an unconstitutional manner. The Crown, however, assigned
to the aged man the well-paid and easily managed diocese of
Orkney, which he enjoyed till his death on Michaelmas Day
1663.'
It was a foregone conclusion that the archiepiscopal dignity of
St. Andrews should go to the active pastor and politician of Crail,
Dr. James Sharp. In the interval between the proclamation of the
restoration of Episcopacy and the public announcement of the selected
bishops. Sharp paid a visit to Robert Douglas to discuss the situation.
' Row, Blair^ 493 : he died at Couston, Aberdour, on 27th August 1666, aged seventy-two.
- Sharp to Brodie, 9th August 1661 : lirodie, Diary, 201.
^ Grub, Hist., iii. 188, 214, 215.
VOL. II. S
138
THE COVENANTERS
Douglas re-
fuses to
apostatise.
Sharp ap-
pointed
Primate, I4tli
November
1661.
Fairfull,
Archbishop
of Glasgow.
Sharp then disclosed, as he said, the King's desire to elevate Douglas
to the primacy, whereupon Douglas emphatically and testily replied
that he would have nothing to do with it. The persistent Sharp
could not have forgotten what Douglas had written to him : ' We
must leave that business to the Lord, who will root out that stinking-
weed in His own time whatever pains men take to plant it and make
it grow.'' Argument was useless, and Sharp rose to leave the house.
As he was passing out Douglas called him back and said : ' James, I
see you will engadge ; I perceive that you are clear, you will be bishop
of St. Andrews : and take it, and the curse of God with it.'"
On 14th November, a patent was issued nominating Sharp to the
Metropolitan See of Scotland, and granting him all the rights,
privileges, and immunities pertaining to the office when held by its
last occupant, Spottiswood.^ The terms of the patent indicate what
a creature of the Crown the Primate was, thus exalted ' ex authoritate
regali, et potestate regia, certa scientia, proprioqtie motu.' He had no
'call.'
Andrew Fairfull was chosen for Glassow. Master of Arts of St.
Andrews, he had been chaplain to Rothes (who owed him gratitude
for irregularly restoring him from the stool of repentance to the pew),
and minister of Leslie, North Leith, and Duns. Burnet and Kirkton's
descriptions are not flattering : a wag, insinuating, crafty, lecherous,
a veritable Dr. Hornbook — better at drugs than divinity. In his
coarse way he answered an objector to the Covenant : ' There were
some very good medecines that could not be chewed, but these were
to be swallowed down in a pill or bolus : and since it was plain that a
man could not live in Scotland unless he sware it, therefore it must
be swallowed down without any further examination.'^ Death ended
his gay life on 2nd November 1663.
The see of Galloway was allotted to James Hamilton, minister of
Cambusnethan, second son of Sir John Hamilton of Broomhill. He
' Wodrow, 1. 38 : 14th June 1660.
- Wodrow, i. 228 ; Douglas's Brief Narration ; Kirkton, 135.
^ Grub, ill. 189.
^ Burnet, i. 238 ; 'AH the Merse talked of his amours' : Kirkton, 135.
RECONSTRUCTION OF THE CHURCH 139
was a graduate of Glasgow. He was deposed for contumacy in 1639, Hamilton,
and on being reponed became ostensibly so rigid a Covenanter that (j3ii°^°
he compelled communicants to renew the Covenant before partaking
at the Communion table, and excommunicated those who did not
comply.' The Government in 1661 made him a substantial grant of
^100 sterling in recognition of his sufferings and his loyalty." He
survived till 1674.
The most notable appointment was that of Robert Leighton, Leighton,
Principal of the University of Edinburgh, of which he was also a uuni.iane.
student and graduate, now sixty years of age.^ He was selected for
Dunblane —
' A grey old minster on the height,
A quaint old gabled place,
With church stamped on its face.'
Leighton was a miserable invertebrate, whom ill-health, largely due
to his habits, kept shivering on the boundary line between what he
styled 'this weary, weary, wretched life' and death — a mere reed
piping with every wind over the bog he could not purify. He
meandered through life as in a dream, fated to dwell in Scotland,
but anxious to pass through England into Heaven, and very envious
that the young preacher, Andrew Gray, ' has got the start of us and
not for long.' Jet black hair made the ghastliness of his cadaverous
features more conspicuous, and added the charm of mysterious godli-
ness to a personality naturally repellent to vulgar Cavaliers. The
expression of his desire to die as he did in an inn drew from the
more human Dean Swift the bitter comment — 'canting puppy."
Yet his dream was not that of Laud, who longed to be reconciled to
Rome, but rather that Rome, with its filial, still unreformed Churches
— the Scots among the number — should be reconciled to its former,
better self — the model Church of primitive times.
' Burnet, i. 238 ; Fasti, iii. 275 ; Naphtali, 135. '■' Act. Pari. Scot., vii. 234^.
^ Hutler, Life and Letters (Lond., 1903), passim ; Aikman, Works (with Life) of Leii^hton
(Edin., 1842).
* Irving, Lives of Scots Writers, ii. 145 note.
I40 THE COVENANTERS
Leighton a According to Burnet, who knew him well, Leighton never laughed,
hypochondriac i i -i i i i
and mystic. Seldom Smiled, and rarely said an idle word.' Leighton's description
of himself in 'his diseased, defiled cottage,' with feeble voice, ' sfreat
defluxion,' and his ' pressingest desire ' to rest in the grave, is the
murmur of a hypochondriac, or, as he styled it, ' ye peevish humour
of a melancholy monk.' Such a passionless mummy, 'whose bones
were marrowless, whose blood was cold,' is not the personage por-
trayed in a painting of the Principal preserved by the University of
Edinburgh, which rather suggests a Christian colonel as hard-mouthed
as any contemporary Cavalier. Leighton had an immoral brother,
. Sir Elisha, a man in high places, who, with some diplomacy, had the
name and fame of Robert brought under the notice of the King, who
nominated him for promotion.
That such a dreamer should have accepted a diocese as a gift
from the carnal Charles makes another mystery to be unfolded.
With a celestial air he confessed that he took office not of choice
but 'as a mortification, and that greater than a cell and haircloth.'-
Brodie, no mean judge of men, records in his Diary : ' I heard
Mr. Leighton inclined to be a Bishop, and did observe his loos
principles befor, anent surplic, ceremonie and Papists.'' As became
the son of that cultured doctor who had almost rotted to death, sans
ears and nose, in an English dungeon for promulgating Sions Plea
Leighton a agaitist the Prclacie, Robert Leighton, in his student days, satirised
bishops! ^ ' ^^ decaying kirk ' and its bishops in verses which
' Deplore the mischiefes of this uncouth change.'
After he went to the Continent to complete his studies — and he was
a finished scholar — his association with the followers of Jansen and
St. Cyran resulted in his holding lofty spiritual and mystical views,
devotion to which Leighton realised within himself, while he failed
in the hard arena of Scots ecclesiastical life to make others illustrate
it. He found uncongenial employment in the parish and church
of Newbattle, where, after taking the Covenant of 1581, he also
' Burnet, i. 2y.) ct seq. - Uutler, 33S. ^ 30th Sept. 1661 : Diary, 216.
RECONSTRUCTION OF THE CHURCH 141
subscribed the Solemn League and Covenant in 1643, and made Leighton signs
others sign it, too, up till 1650.' He did not feel comfortable among jjj'^j,!'^^,^^^"^;^
querulous kirkmen and unbending Covenanters, whose devoteeism he ""' ^'^''^^'^•
deemed inconsequential. Harmless as a dove, yet wise as a serpent,
he 'judged it uselesse and impertinent to tell them so."- In 1661
this triple-bound Covenanter confessed to Brodie that this 1643
Covenant was a mistake : ' The Couenant was rashli enterd
in, and is now to be repented for.'^ What was worse, he con-
fessed he had always believed that. During his term of office as
Principal of the University of Edinburgh (1653-62) — a function
relieving him of much of the irksomeness he felt in pulpit and
parochial duty— he continued preaching to the professors and students
in what Baillie designated ' the new guyse,' which he further explains
to be discoursing ' on some common head, in a high, romancing,
unscriptural style, tickling the ear for the present, and moving the
affection in some, bot leaving . . . little or nought to the memorie
and understanding.'*
If Dr. Flint's estimate of him be accurate — 'a purer, humbler,
holier spirit never tabernacled in Scottish clay,' it is another mystery
that his sympathy found no voice in a protest at those meetings of
Presbytery at which his brethren consigned to the doom of the
Privy Council two wretched women who ' confessed to having maid
a covenant with the devil ' ; nor when the petition of the Provincial
Assembly of Lothian (8th November 1649) to obtain Parliamentary
' The Newbattle copy of the Covenant subscribed by Leighton is preserved in the
National Museum of Antiquities, Edinburgh, catalogued i\ISS. OA19.
^ Leighton to Lothian, 23rd Dec. 1661 : Ancram Coircs., 455.
^ Brodie, Diary, 221. Robert Blair, a contemporary most likely to be well informed,
accused Leighton as much as Sharp of betraying the liberties of the Church (Wodrow, i. 228).
When that redoubtable champion of the Covenant, Sir James Stewart of Coltness, reminded
Leighton that he used to recommend the National Covenant to his flock in Newbattle before
the dispensation of the Sacraments, Leighton justified his change on the ground that 'man
is a mutable changing essence both in body and in mind and frequently is misinformed,'
backing up this view with the text : 'When I was a child, I spake as a child,' etc. Stewart
also accused Leighton of nullifying his ordination vows. The incisive lawyer apparently
reckoned Leighton to be a Pharisee {Coltness Collections, 68, 69).
* Baillie, Letters, iii. 258.
142
THE COVENANTERS
Leighton a
theoretical
Christian.
Difficulties as
to consecration
of Scots
bishops.
Scottish hier-
archy conse-
crated in
Westminster.
'commissiounes for tryall and burning of witches ' gratis was transmitted.'
I have searched in vain for instances of the personal efforts of this
saintly minister to mitigate the brutalities and crimes perpetrated
in the name of law and justice upon hapless Protesters and other
Covenanters ; and, apart from purely academic and forensic attempts
to bring about a millennial harmony, I have failed to find in him any
phenomenal illustrations of compassion.^ Indeed, before retiring
from the Archbishopric of Glasgow, Leighton, while app.roving of
Lauderdale pressing the Separatists to give reasons for their rebellious
opposition, did not remonstrate against the policy whereby 'those
coercions and civill restraints that for a time were intermitted are
now found needful to be renewed.'^
The four divines were commanded to London to receive regular
consecration ; and as only Fairfull and Hamilton had been regularly
ordained in the Episcopal period, Sharp and Leighton, set apart by
Presbyters only, were compelled, in the first place, privately to obtain
orders of deacon and priest before they could seek the higher dignity.^
Sharp at first demurred ; with the pertinacity of a Scot argued the
validity of imposition of hands by Presbyters, and quoted precedents
for exemption from a second ceremony. Leighton, on the other
hand, with a nobler indifference than Lauderdale displayed, who
was prepared to take 'cartloads of oaths,' was ready to observe any
rites which did not weaken the substance of the faith, so long as he
was speedily furnished for his mission of reconciliation.''
At length, with difficulties surmounted, the quartette appeared in
Westminster Abbey, on the 15th December 1661, and were con-
secrated by the Bishops of London, Worcester, Llandaff, and Carlisle
with a stately ceremonial. A banquet was made for them and for the
Scots aristocracy at Court in the house of Sir Abraham Williams, but
' St. Gile^ Lectures, 204 (Edin.) ; Rec, 223, 233, quoted by Butler.
' Row, Blair, 410, 518.
' Leigliton to Lauderdale, i6th June 1674 ; Laud. Pap., iii. 50.
' Mr. Andrew Lang rashly asserts that the four were ' rushed through deacons' and priests'
orders to the discontent of Sharp' : Hist. Scot., iii. 300.
^ Row, Blair, 399 ; Wodrow, Anal., \. 133 ; Hurnet, i. 247 ; Kirktun, 137.
RECONSTRUCTION OF THE CHURCH 143
the joviality of the party made the hypersensitive Leighton feel the
incongruity of merriment and the sad travail he felt coming on the
bishops of souls. Sharp had no such forebodings. Just a year pre-
viously Sharp wrote to Lauderdale in these terms : ' Whatever lot I
may meet with, I scorn to prostitute my conscience and honesty to
base unbecoming allurements.' ' The Scots bishops lingered amid the
allurements of Court till spring, before going north to bestow the
apostolical afflatus upon their less favoured brethren. Leighton, eager
to inaugurate a peaceable scheme for composing the unhappy
differences in the land, lost no time in introducing his irenicon to the
other bishops, only to discover that Sharp, with the craft of a diplo-
matist, had nothing to suggest nor do meantime, and the jocund
Fairfull, light of heart, skipped away into lighter veins of thought."
The homeward journey of the four bishops in Sharp's brand-new
coach afforded the dreamer another mortification.^ But at Morpeth
he dropped the penance and the society of the bishops, when he
learned that a triumph was planned for their entry into Edinburgh.
He preceded his colleagues and arrived in the Capital early in April.
While some supporters went as far as the Borders, the Chancellor,
Privy Council, and magistrates marched out of the city to greet and
bring them back. Burnet witnessed their advent, heard the roarino-,
obsequious crowds, but was not impressed with the humility of the
triumvirate forming the idols in that tawdry show, which was intended
for an ovation, on the historic Hicrh Street of Edinbureh.^
One of the first acts of the bishops was the rehabilitation of the wishart,
hierarchy to its completeness. The see of Edinburgh was assio-ned to ^'''"''' ""^
'■ o to Edinliurgh.
Dr. George Wishart, a staunch sufferer for Monarchy and Episcopacy.
He was the son of Sir John Wishart of Logie, in Angus, a Graduate
of Edinburgh, appointed by King James to Monifieth in 1624, and
translated to the second charge of St. Andrews in 1626. Adherino-
to Episcopacy, he fled to England in 1637, and, two years later, was
deposed for deserting his flock, and for heresy, immorality, and harsh
' 13th December 1660 : Laud. Pap., i. Jo. ^ Burnet, i. 248, 249.
■' Ibid., 2z,i. * Ibid., 2^2.
144
THE COVENANTERS
Milchell,
Bishop of
Aberdeen.
Consecral
of other
bishops, I
662
discipline. Wodrow accuses him of profane swearing on the streets
of Edinburgh, of being 'a known drunkard,' and of writing immodest
Sapphics, a ' scandal to all the world.' ' He became a lecturer in New-
castle, where he was captured by the Scots in 1644, and sent down to
the Tolbooth of Edinburgh for seven months. He joined Montrose,
accompanied him as his chaplain, and went to the Continent, where
he found leisure to write the history of that hero's campaigns.- He
visited England in 1660 in the capacity of chaplain to Elizabeth of
Bohemia.^ It is recorded to his credit that, remembering the horrors
of the Tolbooth, he daily sent some provisions to the prisoners taken
at Rullion Green in 1666 — a rare instance of practical millenarianism.
For Aberdeen was selected Dr. David Mitchell, formerly in the
Old Church of St. Giles, Edinburgh, from which he was removed in
1638 for declining the jurisdiction of the General Assembly and for
alleged Arminianism. He went into exile in Holland, and returned to
England at the Restoration to become a prebendary in Westminster.
He had his doctor's degree from Oxford. Death deprived him of
office in January 1663.
On Wednesday, 7th May, the Bishops-designate of Moray,* Brechin,
Dunkeld, Ross, Caithness, and the Isles were consecrated in Holyrood
Abbey Church by the two Archbishops and Bishop Hamilton, in the
presence of the Royal Commissioner, Middleton, the Estates, and the
Town Council. The preacher. Dr. James Gordon, of Drumblade,
in his sermon had the honesty to remind the bishops of the frailties
of their predecessors, and to counsel them to sobriety, humility, and
attention to their spiritual functions. Next day nine out of the four-
teen prelates took their seats in Parliament. The consecration of the
' Hist., i. 236.
2 De Rebus auspiciis Serenissimi et Potentissimi Carol! sub imperio Jacobi Montisro-
sarum Marchionis supremi Scotiic Gubernatoris anno 1644 . . . Interprete A. S. Agricola
Sophocardia, i.e. George Wishart. The Government gave him a grant for his loyalty and
sufferings.
2 He died at Lammas, 1671, aged seventy-two.
'^ Murdoch M'Kenzie, minister of Elgin, 1645, was so zealous a Covenanter that in 1659 he
searched the town to deprive the people of their Christmas goose : Scott, Fcnti, v. 151. He
became liishop of Orkney in 1677.
RECONSTRUCTION OF THE CHURCH
'45
Bishops of Edinburgh and Aberdeen was postponed till 3rd June and
took place at St. Andrews, while that of the Bishop of Argyle took
place in Glasgow that summer, Fairfull being the celebrant.'
None of the new bishops and none of the clergy who conformed
to the new order were again ordained priests and deacons, as might
have been expected at the hands of the Westminster neophytes.
The following table gives the names of the bishops and their
emoluments :—
James Sharp, D.D., Archbishop of St. Andrews
Andrew Fairfull, A.M., Archbishop of Glasgow,
George Wishart, D.D., Bishop of Edinburgh,
Murdoch Mackenzie, A.M., Bishop of Moray,
David Strachan, A.M., Bishop of Brechin,
David Mitchell, D.D., Bishop of Aberdeen,
George Haliburton, A.M., Bishop of Dunkeld,
Robert Leighton, D.D., Bishop of Dunblane,
Patrick Forbes, A.M., Bishop of Caithness,
John Paterson, A.M., Bishop of Ross,
Thomas Sydserf, D.D., Bishop of Orkney,
James Hamilton, A.M., Bishop of Galloway,
Robert Wallace, A.M., Bishop of Isles,^
David Fletcher, A.M., Bishop of Argyle, . . (The stipend of Melrose.)
The hierarchy was now equipped for its mission, which turned
out to be a militant one, Leighton confessing it was ' fighting against
God,' and multitudes of his countrymen resisting the bishops as their
natural enemies. From the very beginning Leighton appears to
have felt no confidence in the wisdom, pleasure in the society, nor
satisfaction in the work of his colleagues, and ' quickly lost all heart
and hope.' His letters entirely bear out the impression left by the
conversations of the dispirited visionary upon the mind of Burnet,
who thus recorded what he had heard : 'He who had the greatest
hand in it [i.e. Sharp and the restoration of the bishops] proceeded
' Row, Blair, 406 ; Nicoll, 365 ; Act. Pari. Scot., vii. 368.
- To this sum are to be added revenues from Crossraguel, Monymusk, and the Chapel
Royal.
^ Bishop Wallace is buried in Rothesay churchyard. His tomb was lately renovated.
He was cousin-german of the Earl of Glencairn, and was noted for his big stomach. His
epitaph indicates that he was a man of vigour and intellect.
VOL. II. T
i^iS44
1294
93
6
5
6
I
7
10
List of bishops
and their
salaries.
198
8
I
76
6
1 1
288
10
II
152
8
8
43
19
I -
547
4
10
452
0
7
1366
2
8
1366
2
8
140
0
0
146 THE COVENANTERS
The prelates With SO much dissimulation, and the rest of the order were so mean
['carnal' in the original MS.] and so selfish, and the Earl of Middle-
ton, with the other secular men that conducted it, were so openly
impious and vicious, that it did cast a reproach on everything relating
to religion, to see it managed by such instruments.'' There is one
noticeable illustration of the evil of this change of Government. In
1660 the Synod of Argyle resolved on translating the Scriptures into
Gaelic, and appointed a large committee of Gaelic-speaking ministers
to execute the work.^ Two years later the majority of them were
deprived by Act of Parliament and of Privy Council. His epitaph
in Rothesay gives Bishop Wallace the credit of restoring the preached
evangel to the diocese of Sodor. There was a gloomy outlook and
a miserable future for distressed Scotland in 1662, and none the
less because Sharp, on preaching his first sermon after his consecra-
tion at St. Andrews, on 20th April 1662, chose for his text i Cor. ii. 2 :
' For I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus
Christ, and Him crucified.' To the master Christian of Scotland a
crozier was no ' unbecoming allurement ' now, and his sermon glorified
the crozier, not the Cross.
Second session Middleton again presided as Commissioner in the second session
1662. ' of Parliament, which sat from 8th May till 9th September. Its first
statute enacted that, ' It is fit the parliament be returned to its antient
constitution, and that the clergie have their place and vote in parlia-
ment as formerlie.' On this being agreed to, six commissioners
were sent to conduct from Sharp's lodgings, near the Netherbow,
where they were assembled, in Episcopal vestments, the two Arch-
bishops and the Bishops of Galloway, Dunkeld, Moray, Ross, Brechin,
Caithness, and the Isles, who came in and took the oath of allegiance
and the oath of Parliament.' After the ceremony the completed
Estates, in pomp, marched down to Holyrood to feast. Leighton
' Burnet, i. 249. Hallam accepted this estimate and declared 'the new prelates were
odious as apostates, and soon gained a still more indelible title to popular hatred as
persecutors' : Const. Hist., iii. 327, 328, 329.
^ Synod Record, 30th May, 2nd November 1660. Dugald Campbell, minister of Knapdale,
was appointed Editor. ^ Act. Part. Scot., vii. 370, 371.
RECONSTRUCTION OF THE CHURCH 147
kept away, being anxious to stand well with the opponents of these
clerical members of the civil Government. The Estates soon pro-
ceeded to sound the death-knell of Covenanted Presbyterianism, and
to proclaim the autocracy of the King.
The third Act, entitled ' Act for the Restitution and Re-establish- Re-establish-
ment of the Antient Government of the Church by Archbishops and Episcopacy.
Bishops,' was based on the dictum — ' Forasmuch as the ordering
and disposall of the external government and Policie of the Church
doth properlie belong unto his maiesty and an inherent right of the
Crown by virtue of his Royal Prerogative and Supremacie in Causes
ecclesiastical' ' This new statute revived all relative Acts, annulled
the Charter of Presbytery (Act i, 1592), restored to the bishops the
jurisdiction of commissariats (Act 6, 1609), and made bishops the
superiors of lands held by persons off the Crown since 1638.
Act 7, ' Concerning Benefices,' declared all parishes to be vacant
whose ministers had been appointed since 1649, unless they applied
for and got presentations from the former patrons, as well as collation
from the bishops, before 20th September." Thus the sinister Act
of Patronage was revived and a test of Episcopacy provided at the
outset. The test of loyalty came next. Act 8^ ordained that any Tests of
person who refused to celebrate the King's anniversary should ipso ^
facto lose his appointment and should not enjoy any benefice.
Act 12* — -'Act for preservation of his Maiesties person and Acts declaring
- 1 • 1 r ^ Covenanting
government — was so drawn as to embrace every kmd ot treason con- j^ ^e treason,
ceivable, and declared all the official doings throughout the Covenant- 24th June 1662.
ing epoch (1638-60) to be illegal, all bonds made or to be made, in-
cluding the National Covenant and the Solemn League and Covenant,
to be unlawful, the General Assembly of Glasgow to have been
treasonable, inhibiting all persons in rebellion by word, writing, or
deed against regal and ecclesiastical authority, and declaring all
offenders against these provisions to be incapable of civil employment.
This statute was supplemented by another Act, whereby ' persons in
' 27th May, Act 3 : Act. Pari. Scot., vii. 372-4. ' Ibid., 376 : nth June.
Ibid., 376. ■• Ibid., 377 : 24th June.
Oblivion.
148 THE COVENANTERS
public trust ' were to make a declaration acknowledging the Cove-
nants to be unlawful and not obligatory.' This last enactment was
meant for a trap to ensnare Lauderdale and Crawford- Lindsay, and
to lead to their displacement from power and place ; but ' Lauderdale
laughed at this contrivance, and told them he would sign a cartful
of such oaths before he would lose his place.'" Crawford was not
so pliant, and ultimately was turned out of office. Act 13' made it
imperative that all principals, professors, and teachers in colleges should
own allegiance to the bishop, that all ministers attend diocesan meet-
ings, and that all private chaplains, tutors, and public teachers should
be licensed by the ordinary, so that conventicles should not interfere
with public worship and alienate parishioners from the legal pastors.
In order that disloyalty should be totally stamped out, exemptions were
Act of made in the Act of Oblivion,* and Argyll, Wariston, Swinton, Guthrie,
Govan, Home, Dundas, some Campbells, and regicides, were re-
served for justice. By Act jT)' rebels and their families were stripped
of everything making existence possible, and by it even supplicants for
mercy to the rebels made themselves liable to prosecution for dis-
loyalty. In contrast with this drastic procedure the Reverend Father
in God, Sharp, was ratified in his possession of the priory and abbacy
of St. Andrews — a fatal gift.'^ As if to display the royal magnanimity,
Act 80 '^' authorised an indemnity, pardon, and oblivion to many rebels,
with special exceptions of about eight hundred persons supposed to
be able to pay heavy fines, ranging from ^200, up to ;^ 18,000 (Scots),
— that of Sir William Scot of Harden. Some for no offence, others
then dead, minors, and mere names of persons unknown were placed
on this list.' In the list are seen the names of Loudoun, Lothian,
Borthwick, Balmerino, Balfour, Cowpar, Ruthven, nobles, knights,
lairds, and of the Kirkos of Sundaywell and Bogrie, Neilson of Cor-
sock, Maclellans, Gordon of Earlstoun, and other westland Whigs,
' Act 54 : Act. Purl. Scol., vii. 405. (The deed of Renunciation signed by Glencairn,
Rothes, Argyll, Lauderdale, many other nobles and gentlemen, Protestant and Catholic,
about two hundred in all, is extant in the Register House, Hist. Dep., Q. 247.)
- Mackenzie, Memoirs, 64. ^ Act. Pari. Scot., vii. 379. ■* Act 71 : liiW., 415.
' Act 88 : i6id., 432. ' /did., 420, ' Naphtali, 100.
RECONSTRUCTION OF THE CHURCH 149
who were to figure yet at Rullion Green, Drumclog, and Bothwell Fines.
Brig/ The total amount of the fines amounted to ;^i, 91 7,353, 6s. 8d.
Scots. Never before had the Church in Scotland suffered in one
season the triple calamity of being oppressed with patronage, prelacy,
and Parliamentary control.
Middleton, not content with executing this unpopular policy,
cunningly planned the downfall of his powerful rivals, Lauderdale,
Crawford- Lindsay, and Sir Robert Moray, so that he might the more
easily enjoy the forfeitures and fines, which he reckoned on for his
self-aggrandisement. He all but succeeded. He asked Parliament
on the one hand to believe that the King wished, and he made the
King on the other hand to understand that Parliament desired, that
there should be an exception in the Act of Indemnity of twelve persons
who were considered incapable of holding places of public trust — the
names of the proscribed to be found out from the votes of members
of Parliament voting secretly by billets. The Estates were led into The Billeting
passing the Billeting Act on 9th September 1662." Lauderdale and ^gj\°652^'''^'"
his henchman, Sir Robert Moray, were among the proscribed." The
influence of Lauderdale at Court had been on the wane durinsf the
winter through the intrigues of Middleton and others; but when
Middleton returned in February* to give to the King and Council
an account of his Commissionership, Lauderdale was prepared to
expose the mean trick of his enemy, his dishonourable attack upon
the liberties of Parliament, as well as the affront put on his Majesty
by the proposed insult to servants chosen by himself He accused
Middleton of overstepping his function, disregarding the King's
behests, usurping the royal power by touching statutes with the sceptre
without the King's authority, and other fraudulent offences. Middle-
' 1662, Act 80 : ' Act containing some Exceptions from the Act of Indemnitie ' : Act. Pari.
Scot., vii. 420. Loudoun was mulcted in ^12,000 ; ibid., vii. 425^.
- 1 6C2, c. 30 : ' Act rescinding two Acts passed in the second session of the Parliament, the
one for Excepting of persons from public trusts, and the other for voteing the same by billets' :
ibid., vii. 471, 450. ' Act appoynting the maner of voteing by Billets ' : ibid., vii. 472.
2 Laud. Pup., i. 106-34 ; Mackenzie, Memoirs, 49; Burnet, i. 258 et seq. ; Add. MSS., Brit.
Mus., 23246 {Middleton Pap., 1662-4).
* He left Edinburgh on 30th December, according to Nicoll.
I50 THE COVENANTERS
Recall of ton's defencc was unavailing. He was hoist with his own petard by
eton. ^ cleverer tactician. His subsequent interference with a proclama-
tion regarding the fines, which he still intended to peculate, led to the
recall of his commission on loth March, and to the appointment of
his rival to the Captaincy of Edinburgh Castle. ' And thus the
fines,' wrote Mackenzie, 'which were imposed by Middleton to
enrich his friends, proved his ruin.'' Exactly one year afterwards
Lauderdale had the gratification of getting the two over-reaching
measures erased from the Statute Book.^
Degradation On the tum of the tide in political affairs, the Royalists lost no
League'and opportunity of bringing into contempt what the Covenanters looked
Covenant, 29th upon as the palladium of the country — the Solemn Leagfue and
May 1662, at ^ '^ °
Linlithgow. Covenant. On 29th May, Restoration Day was observed every-
where as ' a holiday to the Lord.' At the Cross of Edinburgh the
common hangman tore the Covenants to pieces. Linlithgow that
day held high carnival, under the guidance of the Earl of Linlithgow,
the minister James Ramsay,^ and Bailie Robert Miln. A great
festal baldachin was erected beside the Cross. It was surmounted
by an effigy of the Devil, from whose mouth issued a scroll with the
words on it, 'Stand to the Cause.' On one side appeared the effigy
of an old hag carrying the Covenant, and holding up an inscription :
' A orlorious Reformation.' The Kino-'s health was honoured ; fire
C> Q '
was set to the erection, and after every possible indignity shown to
the Covenants and the relative Acts of Parliament and Assembly,
these documents were torn and reduced to ashes in the flames amid
the plaudits of a hilarious crowd. The burgh fountain ran with
wine, sweetmeats were distributed, and the revellers finished with a
carouse in the Palace.^
' MefHOi'rs, 1 1 3.
^ The discarded Middleton ventured to approach and kneel before the King at Rath, only
to find his master pass him by as an unknown cur : Laud. Pap., i. 189. He became governor of
Tangier, and died there in 1673 after a drinking-bout : Art. Diet. Nat. Biog., for authorities.
^ Afterwards Dean of Hamilton, combatant at Rullion Green, and Bishop of Dunblane,
— a sworn Covenanter !
■" Diurnal, WodrP7ti AfS.'^., .\.\xii. 34. A D/sma/ Account of the Bujituig, etc. (Stevenson's
reprint, 1832) ; Chambers, Doin. Annals, ii. 292 ; Fergusson, Ecclesia Antigua, 192 (Edin., 1905)
RECONSTRUCTION OF THE CHURCH 151
Parliament rose on 9th September. Middleton and the Privy
Council met next day, and ratified a resolution of the bishops to meet
with their clergy in the various dioceses in October. All persons
holding ecclesiastical appointments were enjoined to meet with their
respective ordinaries on a day notified, refusers to be held to be
contemners of authority and liable to censure, while those convening
religious meetings were to be certified as seditious. Trouble was
anticipated in the west and south, only conformity in the north.
The ministers in many Synods were tardy in declaring their allegiance
to their new overseers. In the diocese of Glasgow only a moiety
appeared to welcome the Archbishop, and not one of those popularly
elected since 1649 acknowledged his jurisdiction.
Middleton, accompanied by Glencairn, Hamilton, Montrose, Middleton and
Morton, Eglinton, Linlithgow, Callendar, Newburgh, and Sinclair, ^j^^ J^_'
Privy Councillors bearingr names familiar to all signatories of the=°""'0''n
^ . . . , , • • n -1 • , -1 October i66z.
Covenants, imagmmg that their innuential presence might stimulate
the moribund interest of the westland Whigs in the new frame
of religion, resolved on a semi-royal progress through Clydesdale,
Nithsdale, Galloway, and Ayrshire, by way of Glasgow, Hamilton,
Paisley, Dumfries, Wigtown, Ayr, and Dumbarton. With the tinsel
and noise of a triumph they displayed the unmistakable symbols of
the new regime — maces, swords, and drums. Middleton and riot
went together. These exponents of the new Evangel held their love-
feasts at night, like the early Christians, but it was Satan whose
health they pledged at the cross of Ayr.^ According to Burnet this
surcharge of gaiety rendered Middleton fuddled and obfuscated.
When this Court arrived in Glasgow, Archbishop Fairfull had a
woeful tale to narrate of the obstinacy of younger ministers, who had
neither come to welcome Episcopacy and himself, nor taken the
necessary steps for remaining in their charges. When asked to
suggest a remedy, he proposed that a peremptory order be issued
enjoining all pastors to submit to authority forthwith or quit their
manses and remove into other Presbyteries. He acted on the sup-
' Wodrow, i. 282 ; Kirkton, 152.
152 THE COVENANTERS
position that the clergy having flexible consciences would rather
comply than suffer, and that no more than ten pastors would be
obstinate. The maudlin legislators, fired with this inspiration, met in
the Fore College Hall on ist October, and heedless of the conse-
Edictof quences, authorised an edict of eviction to this effect: ministers who
eviction. have not obeyed the recent Acts shall forthwith cease the exercise of*
the ministry ; their pulpits shall be declared vacant ; parishioners are
relieved from payment to them of stipend, and from acknowledgment
of their ministry, on pain of being convicted as conventiclers ; non-
compliers shall remove beyond the bounds of the Presbytery before
ist November; neglccters of the anniversary thanksgiving shall be
mulcted in one year's stipend, and be liable to the full penalty fixed
by the Act.' All signed the ordinance. The Duke of Hamilton
informed Burnet that ' they were all so drunk that day, that they
were not capable of considering anything that was laid before them,
and would hear of nothing but the executing of the law, without any
relenting or delay.' ^
Evil effects of The ministers were now in even a worse case than the civil
the ptociama- gervants of the Crown, who had in their declaration to repudiate the
lion. ■ . ....
Covenanted Work of Reformation, because the stipends m grain were
not yet converted into money, and the nonconforming ministers had
to leave their homes in winter. They had a recent noble precedent in
the action of two thousand English clergy, who on St. Bartholomew's
Day preferred eviction to conformity. So great indeed was the
number of the pastors of Scotland who refused compliance, that the
majority of the Council on becoming sober grew alarmed at their
own headstrong mistake. Middleton raged and cursed at having
been befooled, and endeavoured to get the Archbishops to contrive,
' for the good of the people,' some way of undoing the evil effects of
the order. Fairfull was in no hurry to retract. Sharp professed to
be shocked at the proclamation, ' nor did he imagine that so rash a
thing could have been done till he saw it in print." His method was
to break his opponents one by one. The Council, at their first
' Wodrow, i. 282. ^ Hist., i. 269. ^ Burnet, i. 269.
RECONSTRUCTION OF THE CHURCH 153
meeting on 23rd December, authorised another proclamation by
which the rigour of their former order was mitigated, and ministers
were indulged until ist February to obtain legalised presentation and
collation, but were ordered to stay in their own parishes ; while
wanderers from their own parish churches were ordered to be fined
in twenty shillings Scots, and extra-parochial gatherings at Com-
munions or 'Holy Fairs' were proclaimed as 'a special engine to
debauch people from their duty.' This respite was a convenience to
a very few waverers. The debauchery of the Commissioner, Council,
and legislators had given the earnest preachers too good a theme for
proving the manifest evil accompaniments of prelatic government,
and the aroused hearers in turn, trusting to that lead, encouraged
their pastors to throw off the yoke of a coercive government and to
become conventiclers.
While Leighton's peers on the Episcopal bench were preparing Leighton's
,,.,.,, T-, , . . diocesan work,
to set m order their ' precmcts — thus rresbytenes were sometimes September
designated — he had summoned the clergy of Dunblane to meet on '^^2.
15th September 1662. Few absented themselves. They began the
business with sermon, prayer, and reading ; and he said he would
preside, unless ' brethren of the exercise ' wished to choose their own
moderator. He was pawky, and left nothing to chance or to clerical
ingenuity. He read aloud a document, which was a miniature Book
of Discipline and Ordinal combined, in which he enjoined judicial
government of church members, family worship, decorous public
worship — the Lord's Prayer, Doxology, and Creed being restored —
extra services, the use of the Catechism, popular sermons, and piety
on the part of the clergy. The ministers accepted the proposals.^
Leighton's humility in offering to sit at the foot of the table while the
brethren dined was thought by some to be ' but straking cream in
their mouths at first.' ^ In other dioceses the functions of Presbyteries
and kirk-sessions were little interfered with.
In St. Andrews, the archbishop was neither so tactful nor so
successful, and many of the wilful pastors of Fife refused to compear
' Wilson, Register, 1-4. - Row, Blair, 427.
VOL. a. u
154
THE COVENANTERS
Changes in
Aberdeen.
and own Sharp's exaltation. The names of the defaulters were sent
Innovations of jq the Privv Council. Sharp introduced innovations, and nominated
the prelates.
a constant moderator for each Presbytery.' Bishop Wishart and
fifty-eight of the brethren met and constituted the Synod of Edin-
burgh, in the presence of the Lord Advocate, city magistrates, and
persons of influence. He chose ' Moderation ' for his text." Among
other innovations he arranged for public prayers, morning and evening
daily, and for the preparation of the Synod business by a committee.
In King's College Chapel, Aberdeen, Bishop Mitchell was met by
nearly all the clergy of his diocese, the absentees sending valid
excuses. With ' these light men about Aberdeen, who have been
ever for all changes,' as Baillie informed Lauderdale, the reforming-
ordinary could use a firmer hand.^ He restored the reader and the
Psalm Book with the Form of Prayers, and improved the service by
enjoining the reader to observe a form of service in which the Pater-
noster, Decalogue, Doxology, and Creed were recited, and lessons
from the Psalter and the Testaments were read. The Synod also
agreed to appoint morning and evening prayers in the larger congre-
gations in the diocese. The Directory was forbidden. Private
baptism and communion were permitted in certain circumstances.
The bishop required that the resolutions of the Presbyteries in
reference to discipline should be ratified by himself; that canonical
obedience of the clergy to himself be given ; and prayers for the
King and bishops by name be made.'* John Menzies, minister of Grey-
friars, and Professor of Divinity in Marischal College, and George
Meldrum, minister of the second charge in Aberdeen, were among
the few who at first refused canonical obedience, but the deposition
of the one and the suspension of the other ultimately brought them
into ostensible conformity, until the test of 1681 discovered them
again in a recalcitrant mood. Mitchell did not long enjoy his
Episcopal elevation, dying in February 1663.
During all this turmoil, the foremost ranks of the Covenanters
' Row, lilai); 425.
^ Baillie to Lauderdale : Lauil. Pap., iii. 477.
2 Nicoll, 3S1.
■• Grub, iii. 205, for authorities.
RECONSTRUCTION OF THE CHURCH 155
were being decimated by death or defection. Chancellor Loudoun
was gathered to his fathers, and the hand that once so boldly sub-
scribed the Covenant, but afterwards gave itself to vicious acts, was
laid in the aisle of Loudoun Church in March 1662. This summer
also saw Principal Robert Baillie declining to his grave, and con-
fessing, 'I tell you, my heart is broken with grief." Officially he Robert BaiiUe
had welcomed his Grace of Glasgow and the Privy Council, appro- broken heart,
priately offering them ' sack and ale.' Conscience permitted no other '^"B"^' '^^2-
courtesy to the hierarchy. Every reed Baillie had leant upon had
broken and pierced his trustful heart. Even the 'dear James' Sharp,
whom he applauded as ' the most wise, honest, diligent, and success-
ful agent of the nation in the late dangers of our church,' and whom
he had pleaded with to help his ' old friends out of beggarie and
dyvorie [bankruptcy],' had already brought ruin on these starving
scholars, and had worse to offer — ' a fearfull persecution ... of the
old Canterburian stamp.' ^ The pain of recording the gossip, that
' Mr. Sharp had bought a fair, new coach at London, at the sides
whereof two lakqueys in purple does run,' was nothing to the con-
fession that the same 'dear James,' 'piece by piece, in so cunning
a way has trepanned us.' Baillie's last letters afford sad reading.
Lauderdale, to whom he once wrote : ' My Lord, ye are the nobleman
of the world I esteem most and love best,' had not deigned to answer
his last epistle. The zest of life was gone. There are tears as he
writes : ' I care for no vanities ; . . . Go3 be merciful to our brethren
who hes no help of man, nor any refuge but in God alone.' Death
was welcome ' in these very hard tymes,' and came in the end ol
August 1662. His relict and children reared no monument to mark
his grave. No portrait of him exists. His many works are his best
memorial.^ The pen-portrait of Carlyle is characteristically appre-
' Baillie to Lauderdale, i8th April 1661. ° Letters, iii. 473, 474.
^ Ladensium Aiitokatacrisis . . . 1640; A Parallel . . . 0/ Liturgie with the Masse Book
. . . 1641 ; An Antidote against Arviinianisme . . . 1641 ; The UnlawfuUnes . . . of Prc-
lacie . . . 1641 ; A Dissuasive from the Errors of the Time . . . 1645 ; An Hist. Vindication
of the Government of tlie Church . . . 1646, 1647 ; Letters andfournals, 1775, 1842 ; Sennons ;
and other works.
156 THE COVENANTERS
Cariyie's ciative : 'this headlong, warm-hearted, blundering, babbling, "saga-
Banue'. ° cious jolterhead " of a Baillie ! For there is real worth in him, spite
of its strange guise ; something of the Boswell ; rays of clear genial
insight, sunny illumination, which alternate curiously with such
babblement, oily vehemence, confused hallucination, and sheer
floundering platitude ! An incongruous, heterogeneous man ; so many
inconsistencies, all united in a certain prime-element of most turbid,
but genuine and fertile radical warmth.'^
Scoi/asui 'Scoria sub Cruce' — 'Scotland under the Cross,' was the sug-
Crucc. .... , .
gestive title which Robert Wodrow, the historian, selected for his
manuscript,- which he published with the title. The History of the
Stifferings of the Church of Scotland from the Restoration to the
Revolution^' A persistent persecution of the Covenanters for twenty-
eight years began, as soon as the Privy Council obtained legal
authority and means to exercise a spirit which showed itself to be
most vindictive, because it was fed on the memories of the hardships
borne by the loyal followers of Charles. The need of the gentry,
not their love of the Carolan policy, accounts for the excesses into
which they fell in expunging nonconformity, in order to enrich
themselves and their minions with the possessions of their opponents.
The hierarchy became a cabal of procurers and panders, not always
cloaked in holy vestments. Where the carcase was, there were the
vultures also. The air was full of visions of forfeitures, fairs for
favourites, imposts for squanderers, offices for idlers, and benefices
for the disciples of Simon Magus.
Expulsion of On the 7th August, Parliament passed a special Act discharging
from the ministry in Edinburgh three ministers, Hamilton, Smyth,
and Hutcheson ; and the Privy Council followed this Act up by
ordering them and all other nonconformists out of town, unless they
accepted the Government's terms before October. Only Robert
Lawrie, thereafter designated ' The Nest Egg,' remained in office,
wherein he qualified for the deanery of Edinburgh and the see of
' Carlyle, Misc.^ vi., 'Baillie the Covenanter." - Wodrow MSS., xli., xlvii., xlviii. uto).
^ Edinburgh, 2 vols., fol., 1721-3 ; edit, by Rev. Dr. R. liurns, 4 vols., Glasgow, 1835.
parish
ministers.
RECONSTRUCTION OF THE CHURCH 157
Brechin.' 'They choosed rather to suffer than to sin,' said their
compatriot, Robert Douglas, who with his family was expelled by a
macer from the court. He had been invited to a conference with the
Chancellor and Bishop Wishart, who hoped to convert him into
compliance ; but he refused on the ground that ' they were setting up
men who would tread them upon, as they had done in former times.'
The prophecy was soon verified. The Act made it impossible for
professors and teachers to remain in office without the approbation of
their ordinaries. In October, David Dickson, now an octogenarian,
was removed from his professorship of divinity and charge in Edin-
burgh, where he had distinguished himself as the champion of the
public Resolutions, a hymnologist, and a cultured commentator."
By the eviction of Donald Cargill from the parish of Barony, Eviction of
Glasgow, the Government created a source of disturbance for long cargiii.
years to come. This young minister, eldest son of Laurence Cargill
of Bonnytoun of Rattray, Perthshire, Notary Public, and of Marjory
Blair, was a student of St. Salvator's College in 1645, ^ licentiate
of St. Andrews Presbytery in 1653, and was called to, and ordained
in, the Barony in 1655 in succession to Zachary Boyd. He was so
ardent a Presbyterian that on Restoration Day he prophetically
declared that the return of the King was ' the wofulest sight that ever
the poor Church of Scotland saw. Wo, wo, wo to him ; his name
shall stink while the world stands, for treachery, tyranny, and
leachery.'" Heroic, fiery, affectionate, clever, eloquent, of swift foot
and tough constitution, Cargill was the leader best fitted to become
the ubiquitous apostle of religious rebellion. His happy essays at
judgment brought him the credit of having second sight. His
marvellous escapes gave him, like Peden, the character of one who
could assume the coat of darkness.* This was not the type of man to
seek Episcopal benediction. For this and other alleged irregularities
1 Act. Pari. Scot., vi. 391 : Act 37, 7th August 1662.
2 Commentary on Matthew ; Hebrews ; Psalms ; Epistles ; Therapeutica Sacra : A
Treatise of the Promises, are among his works : Wodrow, Select Biog., ii. 5-15.
•' Patrick Walker, Life, in IJr. D. Hay Fleming's Six Saints of the Covenant (Lond.,
igoi), ii. S. ^ Ibid., ii. 1-62, and notes.
158 THE COVENANTERS
the Council, when in Glasgow, ordered him to transport himself and
his household be-north of Tay before the first of November.
Doom of The young Earl of Argyll was next selected for sacrifice.
Argyll averted. Middlcton, who had an eye on his vast domain, had Argyll appre-
hended, sent down to Scotland, and tried for treasonable expressions.
On 26th August the usual doom of traitors was passed, and he might
have gone to the heading-block had not Lauderdale, his surety, and
the godfather of his children, obtained from the King a remission of
his sentence in June 1663.^ For this salvation he became the tool of
Lauderdale, and, as a Privy Councillor, forgot his own peril when he
saw Cargill and other martyrs in the talons of their captors.
Two notable ministers to whom the Glasgow Act applied, were
John Blackadder of Troqueer and his neighbour, John Welsh of
Irongray. Troqueer church overlooks Dumfries across the Nith.
Irongray, four miles from that town, is charmingly situated in a
pastoral scene hallowed with many memories of the Covenant. Of
the twenty-one members of the Presbytery of Dumfries, only two
Eviction of conformed. Blackadder occupied his pulpit till the last Sabbath of
Blackadder October, and on that occasion enlarged on the sin of intruding
hireling curates on Christ's flock, and of compliance with the order of
eviction. The auditors were in tears. An alarm was raised that the
horse-guards were approaching to seize him. He retired, but returned
to advise his friends to disperse quietly. Leaving his wife and young
family in the manse, he sought shelter in the house of William
Fergusson of Caitloch, in Glencairn, a staunch Covenanter. Next
Sabbath morning, thinking to catch Blackadder, Turner and the
guardsmen revisited the manse. The scene left an ineffaceable
impression on one of the minister's sons — the guards in the yard
cursing and blaspheming : the children hidden in a loft : this boy
peering through a chink to view the roaring scene, 'a murdering
ruffian ' below detects the tiny face, draws, thrusts, and, just by ' scarce
an inch,' misses the chink and glittering eye. The manse was
emptied, the little ones packed in cadgers' creels, and as the evicted
' Act. Pari. Scot., vii. 380, 381, 387 ; Mackenzie, Memoirs, 70 ; Nicoll, 393.
RECONSTRUCTION OF THE CHURCH 159
family made for Glencairn, one of the children cried through the
Brigen', '1 'm banish't, I'm banish't; Byte-the-Sheep has banish't me.'*
Blackadder, in his flight, appears to have witnessed the eviction of Expulsion of
Welsh. This John Welsh was the son of Josias Welsh, minister in J"''" ^^""='^''-
Templepatrick, grandson of John Welsh of Ayr, and great-grandson
of John Knox. He was by heredity a Reformer, and of the stuff
saints and martyrs are made of In his sermons he had not minced
words, and styled the Estates 'a drunken parliament.' Such freedom
of expression was not to be tolerated. The Stewart-depute, Maxwell
of Munches, a Papist, was ordered to bring his parish minister into
Edinburgh. With some discretion he permitted Welsh to fulfil his
duties at a communion at Holywood, an adjoining parish, on a
Sacrament Monday. The crowds of dalesmen and women who
accompanied him home would have defended him if necessary, had
he not wished to go peaceably with his guards. An extraordinary
scene occurred on the green banks of the Cluden, where he was
to take horse. The other ministers gathered round him, knelt and
prayed. The excited people groaned and cried. They held him
there. He had to dash across the ford, only to be chased by the
crowd of wailing men and women, who followed the cavalcade a long-
way. After compearing before the Committee of Parliament, he was
put under surveillance, and was ultimately dismissed in June 1663.'-
These are not solitary instances of the tyranny in vogue. In order Parliament
to strike terror into western dissenters, a number of the prominent niiniTte"s
pastors were selected for examination before Parliament re-assembled, ^^^y '^^2.
At the end of May 1662, while Parliament was in session, the Com-
missioner and Lords of Articles had summoned John Carstairs,
St. Mungo's Collegiate Church, Glasgow, James Naismith, Hamilton,
Matthew Mowat, and James Rowat, of the first and second charges,
Kilmarnock, Alexander Blair, Galston, James Veitch, Mauchline, and
William Adair, Ayr, to sign the oath of allegiance, which they were
willing to do with the explanation that the King's authority did not
extend to things spiritual. Otherwise their loyalty was unimpeach-
' Blackadder, Memoirs, 857, 91. -' /i/ui., 89 note.
i6o THE COVENANTERS
able, and to prove it, all, except Adair, subscribed a paper to that
Ministers in effect. They compeared before Parliament, which considered their
prison. ^
scruples to be treasonable, and relegated all but Adair to the foul
cells, where they lay till i6th September, when they were discharged
under another sentence of deposition and eviction of themselves and
families from their respective parishes.' Carstairs, a man of herculean
strength, who could exhort as many as fourteen tables at one com-
munion, left the prison wrecked in health. The suave bishop,
Leighton, was sent to try and conciliate the prisoners, only to be
taunted with his own apostasy and defections by these honester
sufferers for conscience' sake.
Thomas Wyiie. Thomas Wylie, a protege of Loudoun, and formerly minister at
Mauchline, where he stood against the King and Middleton in the
Mauchline Moor fray, now that he was translated to disaffected
Kirkcudbright, was a marked man to be tested in a personal com-
pearance at Edinburgh. Wylie for a time kept out of the way,
and refused to seek collation and to take the oath. Ultimately he
succumbed to the pressure of the authorities, and removed with his
family from the parish, not without leaving on record a list of the
lamentable evils entailed on the Church.-
HiighM'Kaii. The Act encouraging spies soon served its intended purpose, and
among the first reported on was Hugh M'Kail, then chaplain to
Sir James Stuart of Kirkfield, at one time Provost of Edinburgh,
and father of James, a dangerous opponent of the Government."
The usual seditious speeches and acts were attributed to M'Kail.
The youth had preached an offensive political sermon, possibly
too true, and Sir James and his son Walter had been hearers that
day. Walter, too, had made a fiery remark or two in a smithy. All
three were summoned. Sir James cleared himself; M'Kail fled
abroad ; Walter compeared, and the Council, thinking his explanation
weak, sent him to the Tolbooth.'* Lying in the same noisome prison
' VVodrow, Hist.^ i. 294-6. - Ibid., 300-3.
' Afterwards joint-author oi Naphtah\ and Lord Advocate.
' Wodrow, Hist., i. 304 : iith November.
RECONSTRUCTION OF THE CHURCH i6i
was lohn Brown, minister of Wamphray, in the presbytery of John Brown
-• ' , 1 /- J of Wamphray,
Lochmaben, a graduate of Edinburgh, an ardent Covenanter and an ,6io?-i679.
erudite theologian. In his native Galloway he had won the heart
of Samuel Rutherford on account of his faithful discipleship, or of
similarity of uncompromising views, so that Rutherford said of him :
' I never could get my love off that man. I think Christ has some-
thing to do with him.' The manly spirit in him could not help
expressing itself in contempt of his weak-kneed co-presbyters who
acknowledged diocesan Episcopacy, and he publicly styled them
knaves and villains. Five weeks' incarceration in November and
December brought him to death's door. After petitioning for liberty,
and agreeing to leave the country and not to return without a licence
under pain of death, he was released. At first he was too poor to
buy a passage. Across the seas, the inspiration of kindred spirits,
rebels and the ostracised, kept his powerful and untiring pen writing
in English and Latin those able and damaging works, which forced
King Charles in 1676 to demand from the States of Holland the
expulsion of Brown, Robert Mac Ward, and Colonel James Wallace.*
It was an irreparable loss to theological learning and to Scotland
when a cruel fate forced this gifted scholar to become a mere polemic,
devoting his talents to the petty measuring out of the ' mint, anise,
and cummin ' for the ordinary sacrifice, while the ' weightier matters
of the law ' were left without an interpreter. His extant works
prove the vast capabilities of this accomplished Calvinist.'"
Citations were directed to the following ministers, as well as to Ministers
local magistrates, ordering them to ensure the compearance of the ^""""°"^ •
accused in the Capital on 9th December: John Livingstone, Ancrum ;
Samuel Austin, Penpont ; John Nevay, Newmills ; John Carstairs,
St. Mungo, Glasgow ; Matthew Mowat, Kilmarnock ; Robert Trail,
' Wodrow, Hist., i. 305.
'■^ Scott, Fasti, ii. 663 ; Walker, Scot. TheoL, 24, 48, 107, 144 ; M'Crie, Veitch, 362,
etc. Brown died in exile in 1679. His chief works are : An Apologetical Relation, . . .
1665 ; The Banders Disba?ided ; Libri Duo, . . . 1670; Apology . . .for Persecuted
Ministers, . . . 1677 ; Christ the Way, . . . 1677; Quakerisme, . . . 1678; The History of
the Indulgence, . . . 1 678 ; and several others.
VOL. II. X
i62 THE COVENANTERS
Edinburgh ; James Naismith, Hamilton ; Andrew Cant, senior, and
Andrew Cant, junior, Aberdeen ; John Menzies, Aberdeen ; George
Meldrum, Aberdeen ; Alexander Gordon, Inveraray ; John Cameron,
Kilfinan ; James Gardiner, Saddle. Among others who were sum-
moned for examination were: Gilbert Rule; John Drysdale; Alexander
Dunlop, Paisley; James Warner, Balmaclellan. Livingstone, Trail,
and Gardiner were duly examined on the nth December by the
John Council. Livingstone recorded the procedure observed. Questioned
Livingstone, 111 1
1603-1672. regardmg his scruples to keep Restoration Day, and to take the Oath
of Allegiance, he declared that he had no clearness that God approved
of anniversary holy days, and that he did acknowledge the King to be
the supreme civil governor. This implied that Presbytery had co-
ordinate jurisdiction in spiritual affairs — a recrudescence of the odious
dogmas of the Knox-Buchanan school. The judges were satisfied,
and sentenced Livingstone to banishment, and to lie in prison till his
ship sailed to Rotterdam, unless he signed an assent to the sentence.
His crave for permission to return and say farewell to his wife and
family was refused. With that noble spirit so seldom credited to the
Covenanters, Livingstone replied to his doomsters : ' Well, although
it be not permitted me that I should breathe in my native air, yet I
trust, what part of the world so ever I go to, I shall not cease to pray
for a blessing to these lands, to his Majesty, and the government,
and the inferior magistrates thereof, but especially to the land of my
nativitie.' Filled with the same Christian spirit, he wrote to his flock
admonishing them ' to love and help one another, have a care to breed
your children to know the Lord, and to keep themselves unspotted
from the pollutions of ane evill world. . . . Let ane care be had of
the poor and sick.' In a later letter he adjured the flock not to
molest the intruded curate : ' As for the poor wretch that is thrust in
upon you, do not hate him, do not injure him, rather pray for him,
and use means if it be possible, that he may recover : but do not
countenance or join with him : ye may easily be sensible that he is
not a messenger from the Lord for your spiritual good.' Livingstone
left his fatherland grieving that he had not lifted up a louder voice in
RECONSTRUCTION OF THE CHURCH i6
o
defence of the faith and in opposition to defections. Livingstone
died in Rotterdam on 9th Aus^ust 1672, aged sixty-nine.'
Trail and Nevay, not to be bent, subscribed the order for banish- Fate of other
ment, 'and not to return, under the pain of death ' ; but Menzies and^^"^^'
Meldrum showed a faint heart and signed the Oath of Allegiance.
Cameron found shelter as chaplain to Locheil in the ruined castle
of Inverlochy. Austin appears to have retired to quiet Penpont,
where he rests. Gordon for a time was left unmolested. Dunlop,
father of Principal Dunlop, as became a Protester refused the Oath
and was confined to Culross. He died in Bo'ness in his forty-seventh
year, the defeat at Pentland having hastened his end. In Rotterdam
the exiles formed that remarkable coterie of ' fiery instruments ' which
kept Scotland lively for many years by their writings and intrigues.
Similar evictions were carried out in several counties, but the Evictions of
purgation was greatest in the Synods of Glasgow and Ayr, Dumfries, ^lergy.
Galloway, Lothian and Tweeddale, and Merse and Teviotdale.
Various calculations have been made regarding the number of parish
ministers deprived through the introduction of Episcopacy, Wodrow
reckoning 'near four hundred ' ; Burnet, 350; Brown, 'the third part
of the ministry,' i.e. 320; Mr. W. L. Mathieson, 271 from 1660 to
1666.° The Rev. Robert Logan's table, compiled from Scott's Fasit,
makes out 952 charges, of which 72 were vacant. The ministers of
329 were deprived, and 551 adhered.' Probably not more than 200
manses were emptied up till the end of 1662, in the Synods under-
noted : —
Synod of Glasgow and Ayr,
63
Synod
of Aberdeen,
6
Dumfries,
30
Ross, .
3
Galloway,
23
Angus and Mearns,
I
Lothian and Tweeddale,
23
Orkney,
I
Merse and Teviotdale, .
19
Glenelg,
0
Fife, ....
lO
Moray, .
0
Argyle, ....
12
Sutherland, .
0
Perth and Stirling,
II
Zetland,
0
20?
' Wodrow, //isi., i. 310-2 ; Select Biog.^ ' Life,' i. 190-241.
' Politics and Religion, ii. 193 note. ^ The United Free Church App-, 213 (£din., 1906).
164
THE COVENANTERS
Andrew
Donaldson.
' The King's
Curates.'
Many of the more timid and peaceable clergy remained in their
offices without conforming in strict legality, being overlooked for a
time through the influence of friends at Court — a notable instance
being William Guthrie of Fenwick. The Privy Council, learning that
few ministers in Dumfries and Galloway had conformed, issued
warrants ordering thirteen ministers in the Presbytery of Kirkcud-
bright, six in Stranraer, six in Wigtown, and two in Dumfries to cease
their work, give up the ministry, remove themselves and their house-
holds beyond the bounds of their respective Presbyteries, before the
20th day of March, and to compear before the Council for their acts
of disobedience.' A similar warrant was sent to fourteen ministers
in the Synods of Fife, Perth, and Stirling, among whom was the
estimable and typical Covenanter, Andrew Donaldson, pastor at
Dalgety. Donaldson's friend and patron, the Earl of Dunfermline,
who got his summons cancelled by the King, was not able to keep
Donaldson in his parish after Sharp astutely got an Act passed
preventing restored ministers returning to their former charges.
Donaldson was suspended by the Synod, but continued preaching.
The Synod proceeded to depose him in October 1664. He still
officiated, his flock remaining staunch to him in spite of heavy finings.
He had to seek safety wandering about — a homeless conventicler,
put to the horn in July 1674, intercommuned two years later, taken
and immured in Linlithgow prison for a year, indulged, and living
on after the Restoration. He had the satisfaction of being reinstated
in his church and manse. He died after 1693."
On the failure of the patrons to nominate successors to these
honourable pastors, the Church had difficulty in filling the vacancies ;
and now it cannot be denied that the ordinaries promoted ignorant,
worthless, contemptible creatures, well nicknamed ' The King's
Curates.' Contemporary authorities of various parties are unanimous
on this point. Burnet is not too bitter when he records : ' They were
the worst preachers I ever heard : they were ignorant to a reproach :
' Wodrow, Hist., i. 362.
'' Ibid.,'\. 409; ii. 325, 343 ; iii. 152 ; Ross, OUmpses, 222-35 i App., 239.
RECONSTRUCTION OF THE CHURCH 165
and many of them were openly vicious. They were a disgrace to
orders, and the sacred functions : and were indeed the dregs and
refuse of the northern parts.' ' Kirkton corroborates Burnet, declar-
ing that they were ' a sort of young lads unstudied and unbred, who
hade all the properties of Jeroboams priests . . . and so profane and
void of conscience themselves that they believed there were none in
any other. ... A gentleman in the north cursed the Presbyterian
ministers, because, said he, since they left their churches, wee cannot
get a lad to keep our cows, they turn all ministers.'" Tweeddale
described them to Lauderdale as ' insufficient, scandalous, impudent
fellows.'^ It is satisfactory now to know that the almost incredible
statements uttered by Stewart, Stirling, Brown, Wellwood, Shields, *
and commonly supposed to be gendered in Covenanting hatred and
spite, were substantiated by Sir Robert Moray, Lauderdale's depute, sir Roben
who, after personal inquiry and observation, concluded that it was'^^°j^^
impossible to support such ignorant and scandalous men, ' unless the
greatest part of them could be turned out.'^
The evicted clergy harangued the people on the sin of intrusion. Riots at
Apart from this, it is not natural to expect that the Scottish temper '^'^"'^'^*''^^-
would have tamely submitted to these cruel and unwarrantable acts of
tyranny, and the substitution of lewd clodpates for their loved and
learned leaders. In Irongray, men and women convened to prevent
the serving of the edict regarding Welsh ; and William Arnot of Little-
park, drawing his sword as he placed his back to the church door,
cried out boldly : ' Let me see who will place a minister here this day.'
Another ebullition occurred when Bernard Saunderson came from the
neighbouring parish of Keir, accompanied by his co-presbyters and an
armed bodyguard, to fill Welsh's pulpit. A crowd of women, generalled
by Margaret Smith, occupied the walled-in churchyard, a natural
coign of vantage, and, after a hot skirmish of stones easily got from
the Cluden, made the prelatic intruders beat a hasty retreat.*
1 Hist., i. 375. 2 Hist., i6o-i. = Laud. Pap., ii. 207.
* Dodds, Fifty Years, 124; cf. Naphtali, iig, 135, 301, 302 ; Brown, Apol. Narr., 270;
Wellwood, Sermon on 1 Peter iv. 18 ; Burnet, i. 379, 441 ; Laud. Pap., ii. 20.
^ Wodrow, i. 365-7 ; Blackadder, Memoirs, 102 note ; Kirkton, 162.
i66 THE COVENANTERS
Origin of the A Similar riot occurred on the attempt to settle John J affray of
Rfsing."^ Monquhitter in Kirkcudbright, early in 1663. The Council took the
matter up in May, and appointed a committee consisting of Linlith-
gow, Galloway, Annandale, Drumlanrig, and Wauchope of Niddrie
(Montrose and Eglinton were afterwards added), to proceed to the
district, to bring the offenders to justice, and to inquire if all the
officials had obeyed the recent statutes. One hundred horse and two
hundred foot of the Guards were told off to accompany the Com-
mission and to exact for themselves free quarters and generous pay
for officers and men. This order inaugurated the policy of repression
by arms which resulted in the Galloway Rising. The Commission
first sat at Kirkcudbright on 25th May, and examined Lord Kirk-
cudbright (who was a Protester and old friend of Wariston), John
Carsan of Senwick, and John Euart (the latter two having formerly
acted as provosts of the burgh), and also thirty-three widows and
servants. They decerned that the three magistrates, being privy to
the revolt, and five women rioters should be apprehended and removed
to Edinburgh for trial, while other fourteen women should be put
in the local bridewell till they found caution for their compearance
before the Council. Some men went to prison for their wives. The
Commission examined the Irongray delinquents at Dumfries on 30th
May, and remitted Arnot to Edinburgh for trial, sending George Rome
of Beoch to prison till he found caution to appear when called on.
As a penalty for undiscovered culprits, they quartered soldiery on the
parish, and exacted a bond of one hundred pounds from the heritors.
The trial in August resulted in Carsan and Arnot being respectively
fined eight thousand and five thousand merks — Arnot being forced
to stand two Sabbaths in the public place of repentance in Irongray
Church. Euart was finally sentenced to banishment. The five
women from Kirkcudbright, Agnes Maxwell, Marion Brown, Jean
Rennie, Christian M'Cavers, and Janet Biglaw, were ordered home
to stand for two market-days at the Cross of Kirkcudbright, with a
placard on each face announcing the crime, and the magistrates were
empowered to scourge and banish the criminals if they tried to evade
RECONSTRUCTION OF THE CHURCH 167
this doom. After sixteen weeks' imprisonment, and on finding
caution, the male vicarious sufferers were released/
It was while this Commission was visiting Galloway that the The Earision
incident occurred which brought so much distress upon William
Gordon, laird of Earlston in Dairy, to be afterwards referred to.^ The
family of Gordon was strong in the Glenkens, and the Earlston Gordons
had favoured Lollardy and other reform movements. They had also an
influential local connection by marriage. John M'Michan, minister of
Dairy, was evicted, and the bishop presented George Henry to the
vacant charge. The Commissioners enjoined Earlston to take steps
to have the presentee settled. Earlston replied, on 22nd May,
declining the order, refusing to intrude, claiming the right of
patronage, and stating that he too had nominated a pastor. They
replied citing him to the Council to answer for contempt.^ Before
leaving Kirkcudbright the Commission appointed a bench of loyal
magistrates under heavy caution, and left a party of the Guards to
aid them in keeping order.
It was soon manifest that the would-be religious King and Council
were not to brook bucolic pietists interfering with their sacred pre-
rogatives and mission, or thwarting their infallible purposes.
A remarkable and unique personage came into prominence at this Pedenthe
critical time. Alexander Peden (1626-86), Pethein, or Peathine, was a illl-iGse.
native of Auchincloich, in the parish of Mauchline (now Sorn). Like
his ancestry he was a bonnet-laird. He studied in Glasgow, and
before entering the ministry became a teacher and precentor in
Tarbolton and Fenwick. He was appointed minister of the Moor-
kirk of Glenluce in 1660. He did not conform and was deprived in
1662. Nevertheless, according to the charge preferred against him
by the Privy Council on 24th February 1663, he continued in his
office, ' labouring to keep the hearts of the people from the present
government in Church and State.' At length, compelled to desist, he
' Wodrow, i. 364-8.
■' The Castle of Earlston still stands. It bears the inscription ' 1655, W. G. M. H.'
'■' Wodrow, i. 369.
landers
incensed.
i68 THE COVENANTERS
finished his parochial ministry with a dramatic climax. His sorrowful
flock came to church to hear his farewell discourses. From morn till
night he continued preaching, the hearers the while sobbing incessantly,
all the more that he prophesied that they would never see his face in
that pulpit again, for he was to become a homeless vagrant for his
Master's cause. Then he lifted the sacred book to bear it away, and
closed the pulpit door. ' He knocked hard upon it three times with
his Bible, saying three times over, " I arrest thee in my Master's
name, and never none enter thee, but such as come in at the door, as
I did."' This malison rested on the pulpit long after Peden's death,
his first successor being William Kyle, in 1693.^
The Low- The migrations through the south-west of Scotland of so many
reputable, influential, and dogged opponents of the new repressive
policy made the Lowlands lively, and created the necessity for the
installation of a government agent as unique and as notorious as the
elusive Peden. It was in September 1663 that the despot. Sir James
Turner, was sent to the south to quell the disturbances. The vexa-
tion consequent on the operation of the obnoxious statutes was not
confined to embittered Presbyterians. The less scrupulous opponents
of Episcopacy showed antipathy in an offensive way. Church doors
were locked in the incumbent's face : the tongues of bells were removed
to make the hour of worship uncertain : the intruded pastors were
terrified by rough-tongued men or stone-throwing termagants who
adjured them to stay away and ruin no more souls : an ingenious
herd-lad emptied a box full of pismires into a curate's boots, so as
to torment him during service ; and even more vulgar and vicious
pranks were played upon the unhappy presentees." On the other
hand, the decorous multitudes of worshippers who gathered to hear
the evicted clergy soon became armed convocations of the lieges.
' Wodrow, Hist, ii. 4 ; iii. 73-5 ; iv. 396 ; Analecla, ii. 85, 86 ; Walker, Some Remarkable
Passages, etc., in Fleming, Six Saints, i. 1-177 ; •'• '29.
2 Kirkton, 161.
ROTHES AND THE RISING OF RULLION GREEN 169
CHAPTER XXIII
THE RULE OF ROTHES AND THE RISING OF RULLION GREEN
In June 1663, Holyrood House once more resounded with revelry The mission
/-<•• T->i iir> c c '~'^ Lauderdale,
when the new Commissioner, Rothes, and the Secretary of State, june 1663.
Lauderdale, took up residence there. Lauderdale had returned to
displace Middleton, to undo the Billeting business, to make vengeance
overtake Wariston, for whom formerly he had owned 'great friend-
ship,' to guide Parliament in framing repressive measures for
dissenters, to take the conceit out of the Church dignitaries, and
generally to advance his own interests by proving to the King how
clever and indispensable he was. His first step in debasing Middle-
ton was the promotion of the bibulous Rothes to be Commissioner ;
and his second was his personal compearance in Parliament to get
the crafty Acts of his rival expunged from the Statute Book.
John Leslie, seventh Earl and first Duke of Rothes, a coarse, The Duke of
.... , 1 • • 11 1-1 • 1 1 • 1 Rothes, 1630-
illiterate boor, salacious in talk and indecent in behaviour, was the ,681.
agent best fitted to give effect to the atrocities conceived in the
cunning brain of Archbishop Sharp. His greed of gain made him
a tool most amenable to a persecutor. His carnal characteristics
distinguished him as the type of man the King loved. He roguishly
excused his own uncleanness of life by asserting that ' the King's
Commissioner ought to represent his person.' ' When Rothes arrived Session of
to preside, on i8th June, in the third session of Charles's first ,5^,
Parliament, 167 members met, including 2 archbishops, 8 bishops,
I duke, I marquis, 35 earls, 4 viscounts, 26 lords, 48 county
members, and 42 representatives of burghs. Rothes intimated
' Burnet, i. 374-5.
VOL. II. Y
I70 THE COVENANTERS
the King's desire for the restoration of the Lords of Articles — the
preparatory committee on business — a step which, by the aid of the
bishops' votes, threw the legislative initiative and power into the
hands of the King and his advisers.^
Johnston, While the Estates were in session, a distinguished Covenanter lay
LordWariston. jj^ ^^le Tolbooth— a political victim tied to the horns of the altar.
This was none other than Lord Wariston. Long a fugitive abroad
under sentence of death, Wariston was tracked by English spies to
Rouen, where he was apprehended, and, on a writ of extradition,
brought to London. While in Holland, according to Brown of
Wamphray, an authority likely to know, Wariston had been cupped
with evil intent by Dr. Bates, a royal physician, and left a wreck,
weak, despondent, deprived of memory.- Middleton, who, with
Dumfries and Secretary Bennet, examined him in London, found him
to be the most timorous man he had ever seen, and suspected him
of shamming.^ He was sent to Edinburgh by sea and escorted to
the Tolbooth with the usual indignity shown to traitors. On 8th
July he was brought to the bar of Parliament to hear the doom
pronounced in 1661, sending him to death by rope and axe at the
Market Cross.* During this judicial interlude, according to Mackenzie,
he was 'running up and down upon his knees begging mercy.''
Lauderdale also informed Moray of this wretched exhibition : ' I
have often heard of a man feared out of his wits, but never saw it
before ; yet what he said was good sense enough, but he roared and
cried and expressed more fear than ever I saw.'"^ His judges asked
him if he had any reason to crave a delay of his execution. In a
voice broken with sobs he replied that ' his memory was lost, that
he remembered neither matter of law, nor matter of fact, nor a word
of the bible ' ; and he begged a postponement so that ministers and
physicians might prepare him for his end." The more humane of
the Parliament-men would have delayed his execution, but Lauder-
' Alt Pari. Scot., vii. 449. - Epistle, Apol. Ki-/.. 9.
•■' Middleton to Primrose, 3rd February 1663 : Wodtflni MSS. ; Kirkton, 170 note.
'' Ail. Purl. Scot., vii. 6g, App. 95. " Memoirs, 135.
" Laud. Pap., i. 152, 155. " Ibid.
ROTHES AND THE RISING OF RULLION GREEN 171
dale was anxious to have the bloody deed accomplished. Fourteen
days' grace were allowed. On the 22nd July he was brought to ' ane Execution of
gallous of e.xtraordiner heicht ... set up at the Mercat Croce of
Edinburgh.' On the scaffold he recovered his composure and read
his ' Last Speech and Testimony,' which is a chaste confession of
his sins, regret for compliance with Cromwell, an assertion of his
innocence of the death of Charles, and an expression of his dying
regard for the Royal House and for his own family. He publicly
pleaded the merits of the Redeemer, and while crying out ' O pray,
pray, praise, praise! ' was turned over by the executioner. His head
was fixed beside that of James Guthrie, and remained on the Nether-
bow for years, till it was removed at the instance of Sir William
Drummond of Cromlix, his son-in-law, and Dalyell's lieutenant at
Rullion Green.' The King was pleased to hear the news of Waris-
ton's death. ■^' Lauderdale, in response to the appeal of Archbishop
Burnet, wrote apparently in Wariston's favour, but at the same time
he advised his under-secretary, Moray, to be shy of the business and
leave the matter alone. The heartless creature indicated his anxiety
to receive his Bible in Hebrew without points, and his scent-bottles,
rather than a pardon for his old friend.'
Thus passed from the very spot where he had often been the Characicr of
herald of constitutional freedom this eminent Scot, who, despite the ""*'""•
defects of his impetuous nature and Border blood, was one of the
most sincere and devout upholders of the Reformed faith in its
Covenanted form. A pious lawyer — a rare phenomenon in his day —
a conscientious politician — an equally rare subject (he had doubts
about complying with the Sectaries), and a pure-minded man,
Wariston possessed so many other worldly characteristics that his
son-in-law, Jerviswood, best described him as 'a man with God.'
On the way to his own execution, Jerviswood looked over to
Wariston's Close and exclaimed to Wariston's daughter, Helen :
" Nicoll, 394-6; Naphtali, 209; Omond, Lord Advocates, i. 182-5: Aldis. List, No.
1774, Last Discourse of . . . Warislcn; Wodrow, i. 355-62.
' Laud. Pap., i. 153. ^ Lbid.
172 THE COVENANTERS
' Many a sweet day and night with God had your now glorified
father in that chamber.'
James Wood's While Wariston was lying in his blood, another bright luminary
es imony. .^ ^j^^ Church, James Wood, Professor of Divinity, and Principal of
the Old College of St. Andrews, was summoned to the Council to be
taken to task for retaining an office which he got from Cromwell.
Wood was an able man, a staunch Resolutioner, a negotiator at
Breda, the bosom friend and promoter of Sharp. Now his presence
near the palace of the Archbishop was offensive ; and the champion
of Nonconformity, even although enfeebled in health, had to be
removed. Not content with this. Sharp, after paying a visit to the
sick man, promulgated the false report that Wood had confessed his
defection, and intimated his willingness to live and die under the new
discipline. This slander so hurt the dying Presbyter's feelings that
he subscribed, before credible witnesses, a testimony asserting his
'wonted zeal for Presbyterial government,' and 'taking God, men,
and angels to be witnesses, that I would count it my glory to seal
this word of my testimony with my blood.' He died on 15th March
Archbishop 1 664.' Sharp declared this document to be a testimony fraudulently
vindicUveness. obtained from a facile, moribund man, and caused the witnesses to
it, and other recusant visitors of Wood, to be prosecuted as con-
temptuous, peace-breaking conventiclers. The Commission took up
the case on 15th April, sent William Tullidaff, minister of Wemyss,
to the Tolbooth for being a witness, ordered the deposition or
suspension of Wood's visitors for conventicling in St. Andrews, and
dispatched the seditious declaration to the hangman's fires. Another
witness, John Carstairs, Wood's brother-in-law, wrote an account of
the incident to Chancellor Glencairn, narrating the circumstances as
above." The affair afforded the Archbishop a lever for removing
from the ministry several influential opponents of his policy. The
Archbishop of Glasgow was equally assiduous in displacing the
recusants, and there was good reason for the lament of the author of
' Add. MSS. 23251, fol. 9 ; Row, B/air, 465-7 ; Wodrow, i. 391, 404-6.
- M'Crie, VeiicA, App. 491.
ROTHES AND THE RISING OF RULLION GREEN 173
Naphtali, that the shepherds were smitten and the flocks scattered,
the teachers removed, and the vineyard and sanctuary laid desolate,
so that in whole provinces no preaching was heard, and the Sabbath
was only known in sorrowful remembrance.' Hitherto the retributive
statutes only applied to ministers ordained since 1649: that too was
soon remedied, and the older Covenanters were netted as well.
Naturally Lauderdale was anxious, until Parliament passed the Lauderdale's
' Act rescinding the Acts of September 9, 1662, regarding Trusts and duties. ^
Billeting.'^ He wrote to Moray: 'Nodogg leads so buse a life. I
am perfectly dazed.' ^ No wonder! He had to carouse with Rothes,
examine Wariston, inquire into Middleton's peculation of ^30,000
of army pay, and the fraud of Middleton's vicereine, who imagined
that the furniture in Holyrood was her own, to mention the penalties
for dissenters, and to explain the pretence of associating Papists with
these unfortunates. There was a spice of blasphemy in his thought
when he wrote to the King, the day after Saint Billeting's day,
thus : ' By yesterday's Act you will see that Billeting is dead, buried,
and descended.' Middleton, branded as a liar and peculator, degraded Fate of
from position, despised by the nobility as an upstart, and ' de-courted,' '
as Nicoll happily phrased the dismissal, was relegated to the
governorship of Tangier, where he died of a fall when drunk, in
1674.'' Lauderdale had triumphed. Sharp's day-dream of a con-
junction of these two rivals ' for good to poor Scotland ' was dissipated.
Still, in Rothes — Silenus enthroned on his cask — this ' Father in God '
held a potentate who suited his purpose as well as Middleton.
The Government, influenced by English repressive legislation, on 'The Bishops
loth July, passed an 'Act against separation and disobedience to '"^■"*'-
ecclesiastical authority.'' It was popularly known as 'The Bishops'
Drag-net.' It ordered ministers appointed before 1649 to obtain
collation before 20th September ; absentees and nonconformists to
be suspended and deposed for persisting in disobedience ; the Privy
Council to remove delinquents and punish preachers not collated ;
' Page 117.
' Act. Pari. Scot., vii. 450, 471, Act 30; Mackenzie, Memoirs, u8, etc.
^ Laud. Pnfi., i. 148-71. ^ Liurnet, Hist., i. 364 note. ^ Act. Pari. Scot., vii. 455, A<-t 9.
174
THE COVENANTERS
Tiie deniaml
for outward
conformity.
Proposed
Synod.
parishioners to attend their own parish churches — withdrawers
(' whether upon account of Popery or other disaffection ') being Hable
to heavy fines as seditious persons ; and, worst of all, enjoined the
ministers to admonish delinquents, and send the names of the with-
drawers to the Privy Council, who got power to inflict ' corporal
punishment as they shall think fit.' These facts are worthy of
attention : every parish had a Government informer ; the Council
could punish dissenters as they pleased. The latter fact explains
the subsequent procedure of the truculent Councillors. The Earl
of Kincardine was one of the minority who recoiled from the new
inquisition, which was an imitation of the cruel policy and deeds
approved of by Primates Whitgift and Bancroft when dealing with
Enoflish dissenters.^
Lauderdale, in writing to Moray, explained the meaning of this
statute thus : ' Penalties [are] calculated for our western dissenters
(thogh the word papist be put in of course to beare them company),
and it is hoped the penalties will be stronger arguments to move
them to outward conformitie than any divines could use.' Charles,
too, was pleased with the Act, caring nothing what cloak of religion
men put on, so long as they were orderly citizens. Parliament
further enacted that all persons holding offices of trust should take
the Oath of Allegiance.' A Militia Act was also passed.'* There-
after, Lauderdale, vowing vengeance, yielded to a clamour in certain
circles for a National Synod as a panacea for the country's distemper,
and countenanced the Act for constituting it.' Never was a more
Erastian Assembly contemplated. It made the clergy into puppets
manipulated by the King, or his kinglets. The hierarchy, with its
long tail of paid functionaries — the lay-elder was abolished — were
to convene when and where the King ordered them to meet, under
the Archbishop of St. Andrews, in presence of himself or deputy,
to discuss subjects prescribed by the King, and to frame Acts only
obligatory when confirmed by the King. By this deft touch of
' Hallam, Const. Hist., \
' fbid., 42, 480.
'99. 213, 394. - Act. Pari. Scot., vii. 17, 463.
* Ibid., 22, 465, August 21 ; Wodrow, i. 353.
ROTHES AND THE RISING OF RULLION GREEN 175
Lauderdale, the Church was converted into a college of pious scribes,
and the Monarch into an infallible Pope. To complete the farce,
the Synod never met.
In December 1660, Sharp boasted to Drummond : 'I have done
more for the interest of Presbyterian Government in Scotland than
any minister who can accuse me.' In November 1663, Sharp adjured
Lauderdale : ' Your Lordship can never doubt but that my service
and obsequiousness to his Majesty and to your Lordship will draw
in a line.' * Sharp might reconcile these statements by his belief
that extinction was the best interest of the Church he had betrayed.
It was not inappropriate that, on the last day on which the Estates
met, a grant of the precious metals in the Ochils should be criven
to astute Lauderdale,^ who returned to London satisfied that he had
restored the ' good old form of government ' — he should have added
'called Despotism.'
The two archbishops were advanced to the Privy Council, and ' twenty Mile
the clerical brains were at work that day, 13th August 1663, when the Augus?i653.
famous 'Twenty Mile Act' was passed, 'by which the turbulent and dis-
affected ministers' got other twenty days wherein to conform, or remove
with their whole households twenty miles from their churches, six miles
outside a cathedral city, and three miles outside a royal burgh.'
Under this Act withdrawers from Synods were to be proceeded
against. The bishops were busy pressing the constant moderators
to deal with their refractory brethren ; and the Privy Council had
plenty to do giving effect to their latest proclamation, that the
religious meetings of ' th& outed ministers ' were seditious convoca-
tions."* Repression made conventicling more popular ; and Prelacy
grew more distasteful to crowds, who listened to many vaorant
Presbyterian pastors evicted from Ireland at the Restoration. Epis-
copacy, not having been legally suppressed there, was more easily
re-established by the displacement of these nonconformists, who
• Laud. Pap., i. 47, 89 ; Laing MSS., 784. 2 Act. Pari. Scot., vii. 524.
^ Privy Counc. Rec. : Twenty-eight Councillors present, including Rothes : Row, B/air, 447 ;
Aldis, List, 1747.
' Proclaimed, nth August ; Aldis, List, 1759.
176
THE COVENANTERS
Exactions by
Government
officials.
crossed the channel into Galloway. The Scots Council decreed
that these 'wasps should have no countenance,' and, if found with-
out passports, that they should be sent to prison. Turner and the
Guards were set on to ferret them out. The churches became
emptier. Discontent was on the increase.
The exactions from the nine hundred persons mentioned in the
Act of Indemnity, 1662, had been made with such cruel exorbitancy
that the victims were beggared and their best instincts violated.
There was a short surcease of the extortion. Then a military party
arrived in a district, and its commander demanded not only the
unpaid fine, but three shillings a day for every trooper to be quartered
till the fine was paid. There was no remeid of law. Seizure of
proods was authorised.' There could be no error, because the fine
was debitum fundi, whoever the occupier might be. No excuses
were valid. None were too poor to pay. The exactors were thus
licensed brigands, who beat, tortured and imprisoned, to gain their
ends. The method for levying the sum of twenty shillings for with-
drawing from public worship was simple. After sermon the incumbent
called the congregational roll, and, marking the absentees, .sent their
names to the fining officer. He rode to quarters and waited for the
fine. Or the troop rode up to church, called the congregation out,
and seizing the visitors from other districts fined them, stripped them
of their clothing, or detained them for further Heecing. They also
drove the absentees to church, abusing the invalids on the march
thither." Insult was heaped on injury when the maltreated were
coerced into signing a certificate, ' that thfe Captain had used them
civilly and discreetly.' Corruption reigned everywhere. Moray is
explicit on this point. From peer to pedee there was a vile lust
for fines and loot, as will be proved. On the day Parliament rose.
Sharp wrote to Sheldon pleading that Dumfries, who stuck to the
peculating Middleton to the last, might get a share of the fines.^
' Act. Pari. Scot., vii. 203.
'■^ Naphtali, 130-4, App., 287 ; Kirkton, 200, 201 ; Hind Let Loose, 184.
^ Laud. Pap., ii. 20, App. i.
ROTHES AND THE RISING OF RULLION GREEN 177
The Advocate Mackenzie's excuse for the enormities — that no just People goaded
government could be responsible for the extravagances of the soldiery '° ^^peration.
— was mere trifling with the subject.' Guilty and innocent alike were
goaded to desperation when the slightest show of disapproval led to
sympathisers being registered as rebels. Yet despair lasted for years
before defensive arms were resorted to by the persecuted.
Lieutenant Rattray and the foot guards in Kirkcudbright did not Disturbances
quell the Gallovidians, especially those of Anwoth, where the defiant '" ^''"°^''='>'-
spirit of Rutherford still lingered. From his pulpit John Mein, a
true-blue Covenanter, had been ousted, and a young expectant,
Alexander Robertson, son of the minister of Urr, in September
boldly took his place, in spite of the guards. He it was who shortly
afterwards encouraged the Balmaclellan rioters, marched with them
to Dumfries and on to the Pentlands, for which he ultimately suffered.'-
Sir James Turner was sent by the Council to reinforce Rattray and sir James
to put the disturbance down.^ In Turner, who, as a soldier, knew jgiTjese
Galloway well, the Government had a veteran agent, punctilious,
remorseless, thorough. He was a product of an age which utilised
men who emasculated themselves of the higher virtues, to become
butchers of each other under a semi-chivalrous code of warfare, for
pay, loot, and fame.^ Romance was bred in him near the ruined
castles of Borthwick and Dalkeith, where his father, a parish minister,
read books and made poor rhymes.^ By graduating at Glasgow in
1 63 1, Turner redeemed himself from the illiterate condition which
distinguished the other ' Dugald Dalgettys ' in the pay of the Crown.
In the evening of his life he employed his pen writing Pallas Arinata,
and other productions in prose and verse. Penniless, he sought
advancement in Continental wars, and became a typical mercenary
selling his sword for any cause. In his Memoirs he confessed : ' I
had swallowed without chewing in Germanie a very dangerous
maxime which militarie men then too much followed, which was that
' Vindication, lo. 2 Wodrow, ii. 21, 49, 50 ; Just. Rec, i. 186.
' Turner, Memoirs, 139 (Bann. Club ed.). * Cf. Scott, A Legend 0/ Montrose, chap. ii.
' Professor Lee made the curious mistake of describing Turner as 'an Englishman':
Lectures on the History of the Church of Scotland, ii. 331.
VOL. II. Z
178 THE COVENANTERS
so we serve our master honestlie it is no matter what master we
serve.' Loyal to this immoral maxim, he fought for foreigner,
Covenanter, Engager, Montrose, Solemn Leaguers, for and against
the King, for and against Presbytery and Prelacy. The King
knighted him in 1662. Mirabile dichi, he never bled, save when
he was drunk — a vulgar sin which ' brought me many inconveniences,'
he wrote/ It only needed a licence to convert this bibulous brawler
into a merciless brigand where there was a house to harry, or a fatted
calf to kill. Yet with an incredible assurance, in an essay entitled
' A Christian under the Covenant,' Mr. Andrew Lang asserts that
Turner was ' infinitely more of a Christian than the Saints of the
Covenant.'^ He, of course, in his special pleading, omits the fact
that the Privy Council dismissed Turner upon receipt of an incrimi-
nating report on his cruelties.^ Moray reported similarly. Defoe
was nearest the truth when he asserted : ' It is impossible to give the
details of the cruelties and inhuman usage the poor people suffered
from this butcher, for such he was rather than a soldier." * Turner,
on the contrary, asseverated that Rothes and Sharp chid him for his
leniency.''
Changes in In this unhappy period the hierarchy suffered several changes and
1663.'^"^^"^'^' losses. Sydserf, Bishop of Orkney, died on 29th September, 'little
more than a year afte« his translation,' which made Burnet cynically
record : ' He had died in more esteem if he had died a year before it.' "
He was succeeded by Andrew Honyman, Archdeacon of St. Andrews,
once a zealot for Presbytery, now the fidus Achates of Sharp. On
2nd November, Fairfull, Archbishop of Glasgow, also died in Edin-
burgh, and his see was given to Alexander Burnet of Aberdeen,
who, in turn, was succeeded by Patrick Scougal, minister at Salton.
The ceremonials of consecration and of installation were held in St.
Andrews on iith April 1664.'
Again the Church was fully equipped with diocesan overseers.
' Memoirs, 43. * Blackwood's Magazine, clxxiv., 41-3, July 1903.
^ Memoirs, 207, 209; Privy Counc. Rec. (20th February 1668) — Decreia, 36 ; Laud. Pap.,
ii. 83, 100. ^ Hist., 208. ^ Burnet, i. 379.
' Hist., I. 237 ; Nicoll, 400. '' Nicoll, 403, 408 ; Row, Blair, 467.
ROTHES AND THE RISING OF RULLION GREEN 179
The system of government was unique. The bishops were virtually status of the
officers of the Crown : Kirk-Sessions, authorised by the bishop,
might meet : the Exercise or Presbytery met with the bishop as
moderator, or under the presidency of a ' constant moderator '
nominated by the bishop : the diocesan Synod met and was presided
over by the bishop : the national Synod was a Parliamentary
chimera only.
Sharp was miserable. He realised that the country was not at sharp
his back. His early friends Houted him as the Judas who had
betrayed their Church. The aristocracy despised him as an upstart.
The masses arrived at the same conclusion as James Mitchell, that he
was the instigator of the national woes. Some needy hirelings and
unbending Royalists gave him countenance. Sharp even confessed
that ' the gangrene of separation from the Church ' was spreading and
making the position of the prelates precarious. This idea became
fixed, got on his nerves, so that he began insinuating that the Privy
Council was in league with recusants hatching some sinister plot. He
entered himself heir to Laud's fatal policy of repression, which also
recoiled on his own head when he tried the dragooning of other wills.
At this juncture the King was willing to tolerate dissent for sake of
shielding Popery ; Lauderdale was indifferent as to what form of faith
held the field ; but Sharp felt an inward call to display a superior
wisdom in the curative results of his policy.^ He would establish the
Court of High Commission, a weapon which other tyrants had found Court of High
1 r t_ • Commission,
as impotent on the people as fatal to themselves ; and for this purpose ,664.
he betook himself to London, to advance his cherished policy, and to
blame Chancellor Glencairn and others for their pusillanimity. His
arrival was chronicled at home by the receipt of recriminating letters
ordering rigorous treatment of the disaffected. The Oath of Alle-
giance was the touchstone. Many prominent citizens — Dalrymple of
Stair, Dundas of Arniston, Mackenzie of Tarbet, and others — refused
to disclaim the old Covenants.^ Others gave up offices of trust.
' Mathieson, Politics, ii. 210 ; Dodds, 125 ; Wodrow, i. 384 ; Burnet, i. 369 note.
' Wodrow, i. 345, 395 ; Row, Blair, 469.
i8o
THE covenantp:rs
Sharp
humbled.
Sharp
exalted.
The new
Commission.
Charles was gracious to Sharp, who had an inquisitional ally in the
Primate, Sheldon. Lauderdale, Moray, Argyll, Tweeddale, and
Kincardine favoured conciliatory measures, but Lauderdale meantime
acquiesced in Sharp's demands, ' persuaded he would ruin all : but,
he said, he was resolved to give him line, for he had not credit enough
to stop him.'' Lauderdale had for a second time to humiliate the
treacherous Sharp and bring him to his knees in tears before the
King, who henceforth was to recognise his servant as a knave, pol-
troon, and liar, to be used but not trusted. -
Early in the year 1664, Sharp returned to Edinburgh carrying a
portfolio full of warrants, patents of bishoprics, and patronages. He
was an exalted personage, Primate and Metropolitan of all Scotland,
with the highest precedence in the land, and styled ' His Grace.'
Douglas's prophecy had complete fulfilment : ' Pick a bishop to the
bones, and he '11 soon gather flesh and blood again.'"
Sharp produced a warrant, dated i6th January 1664, for con-
stituting a ' Commission for executing the laws in Church affairs,'
which was another name for a Star Chamber, superseding the Privy
Council. It was nicknamed The Crail Court. The tribunal was to
last till November. Its members were specified — Sharp (President),
Chancellor, Treasurer, Archbishop of Glasgow, Hamilton, Montrose,
Argyll, Atholl, Eglinton, Linlithgow, Hume, Galloway, Annandale,
Tweeddale, Leven, Moray, seven bishops, six lords, four law-lords,
four gentlemen, five provosts of burghs, the Dean of Guild of
Edinburgh for the provost, and Sir James Turner ; any five, including
a bishop, to be a quorum.'' Every ecclesiastical offence was to come
under their survey, and they had power to fine or imprison at will,
and to have their orders implicitly executed by all officers of the
Crown, without requiring indictments, defences, or evidence led.
Their net had the smallest mesh. With Sharp at the head and
Turner at the tail of this ' illegal monster,' as the author of Naplitali
designated the Commission, the country was in peril of being cruelly
' Burnet, i. 370, 378.
^ Row, l>lai>; 462.
■■' Ibid.., i. 360 ; Scottish lievieiv, iv. 6, 14 ; v. 76.
^ Wodrow, i. 384-6.
ROTHES AND THE RISING OF RULLION GREEN i8i
devoured. It was no wonder that ostracised Brown wrote from Barbarities of
Holland those telling chapters demonstrating the unlawfulness oi ^^^^
hearing such heralds of the Gospel, and of obeying such a Commis-
sion/ The minutes of this Court have not yet been found. The
well-informed contemporary author of Naphtali has recorded a few-
instances of the barbarities perpetrated, ' whereof there is no corner in
the whole country, nor parish almost in the west, which cannot give
evidence."" Ex ungue disce leonem.
The case of Ancrum was a typical one and the minister affected Jam" Scoit
, . . J of Ancrum.
was likely to obtain the best protection of the authorities. James
Scott was presented, at the end of 1665, to the pastorate of Living-
stone— exiled for his faith. The antecedents of the unwelcome
presentee, who got no call, were too well known.^ He was a
Borderer, a graduate of Edinburgh, a former Presbyter of Jedburgh,
having been ordained in Kirktown, forty-nine years before, whence
in 16 1 9 he was translated to quiet Tongland in Galloway. There he
contracted unholy habits. He became a boft vivant. He kept few
of the laws. He left his pulpit empty for weeks ; he helped himself
to the church funds ; he ' tabled ' or enjoyed cards, draughts, dice ; he
was friendly to excommunicated Papists ; he declined the superior
Church courts ; and he opposed the Covenant. The Assembly
deposed him in 1639. Across the Border he became Episcopal
minister of Ford in 1660, and had the ban of excommunication
removed from him by the Bishop of Galloway in 1664. He was an
object of special solicitude to the first Restoration Parliament, which
voted him a grant of one hundred pounds, increased to one hundred
and fifty pounds, out of the diocese of Glasgow, or Galloway, because
he was 'an extraordinary sufferer these twenty-four yeers byegone.'^
This was also a case for a conscientious congregation. Scott The rabbling
arrived in Ancrum to preach and be placed : his hearers, men and
women, came to object — they confessed to be ' pressed in conscience
' Apol. Narr., 270, 316. - Page 130.
■* Scott, Fasli, ii. 484, 503, 723 ; Peterkin, Record's, 261.
* 23rd September 1663 : Act. Pari! Scot., vii. Sia, 484.
i82 THE COVENANTERS
to declare to him their dissatisfaction with his entry. The women
had a local pattern for being more valiant, in their own ' maiden
Lylliard,' resting close by, whose epitaph declares : —
' Upon the English louns she laid mony thumps.
And, when her legs were cutted off, she fought upon her stumps.'
Banishment of A young married woman, Turnbull, desirous of pressing home her
rural views, seized Scott, the presentee, by his cloak. The ungallant
Scott drew and used his pastoral staff. There were the usual Border
cries. Her two brothers joined in the fray and took revenge. The
local bench fined and imprisoned the rioters. That was not enough
for the Council or the Commission. Four culprits were brought
before the Commission to be sentenced ' as contemners of the
Ordinances, to be scourged through the town, stigmatised with the
letter T[raitor] at the Cross of Edinburgh, and thereafter imprisoned,
and with the first ship to be carried to the Barbadoes Islands.' The
Turnbull brothers of Ashieburn, married men, were afterwards
sentenced to banishment in Barbadoes, and their sister to be scourged
through the town of Jedburgh.' As the burghal hangman flogged
the well-padded heroine, who was led through the streets by her
brother, he turned his hateful duty into a popular, laughable panto-
mime. Mr. Grub, when animadverting on Wodrow and his acceptors
for crediting Kirkton's version of what Mr. Grub designated a
'probably untrue story,' had not consulted the very credible con-
temporary book, Naphtali, the author of which points out, as if
worthy of note, that the Commission had acted ultra vires in
ordering the stigma and transportation."
Cruelty to Another case which created a stir at the time was that of
Smith. Alexander Smith, a graduate of Edinburgh, evicted minister of
Colvend, who, after residing quietly at Leith, was charged with con-
venticling. At his examination he addressed Sharp as ' Sir,' instead of
' Your Grace.' Rothes demanded if Smith knew who the president
was, when Smith intrepidly confessed that he recognised ' Mr. James
' Naphtali, 128 ; Kow, Blair, 484 ; Kirkton, 209 ; Wodrow, i. 393.
' Grub, Hist., iii. 221 note ; Naphtali, 125.
ROTHES AND THE RISING OF RULLION GREEN 183
Sharp, sometime fellow-minister with himself.' This reply was
deemed treasonable, and Rothes ordered the hangman to put the
minister in irons in 'The Thieves' Hole'— a filthy place— beside a
furious, unfettered maniac, the intention being obvious. When his
judges learned that the prisoner was visited and sustained by charit-
able friends they removed him into the Iron House, and ultimately
ostracised him to Shetland. He was brought back to Edinburgh
and was thereafter sent to North Ronaldshay, whence he returned to
die on the Castlehill in 1673. Kirkton records: 'I heard him say
he was in one island four years, where he had neither food nor fire to
keep in a miserable life, his food being only barley, his feuel sea-
tangle.'^
For somewhat similar offences a man named Black was scourged Sufferings of
through Edinburgh." The laird of Aikenhead, near Cathcart, James Hamilton.
Hamilton, and his tenantry, became embroiled with a greedy local
curate, who sought revenge by calling in the bishop as referee. The
latter employed Sir James Turner. When the Commission heard
Hamilton's defences, they mulcted him in a quarter's rent, and on
his refusal to promise attendance on the new curate's services, they
exacted another quarter, and handed him over to the tender mercies
of Archbishop Burnet, who soon had him back before the Commis-
sion. No persuasion would induce him to take the oath of allegiance,
unless the obnoxious clause regarding the supremacy was deleted.
Rothes said he deserved hanging. They fined him ^300 and
banished him to Inverness. His estate was sequestrated to pay
these fines ; and even after his sentence was remitted, he was again
incarcerated in the Tolbooth of Edinburgh, where he lay for months
until another fine was paid, when he was liberated.^
John Porterfield, laird of Duchall, Kilmalcolm, absented himself Sequestration
fpom the services of his calumniating curate, and in consequence was °^ ^°""'''''^"
invited by the Commission to take the oath, which in its amended
form he was willing to do, had that been admissible. A fine of
' Nicoll, 441 ; Scott, Fasti, ii. 577 ; Kirkton, 209 ; NaphtuU, 129.
' Naphtali, 129. ^ Wodrow, i. 391-2.
i84 THE COVENANTERS
^500, to pay which the estate was sequestrated, and an injunction to
reside in Elgin, were the beginning of a lifetime of persecution of
this staunch non-juror.' For having like scruples about the oath,
Walter Pringle of Greenknowes was fined ^100 and sent to Elgin. -
William The Court made a progress to the west to investigate similar
FemWck"'^ cases, and to strengthen the hands of Burnet and his clergy. Among
1620-1665. the ministers ordained before 1649 was William Guthrie in Fenwick,
proprietor of Pitforthie, cousin of Guthrie the martyr, and a favourite
student of Rutherford. An unbending Covenanter, he marched
against Montrose, opposed the Engagement, was in the scuffle at
Mauchline Moor, joined the Protesters, became a ' trier ' under
Cromwell— in a word, had done everything to make himself a marked
man. He had found time to write a small book entitled The
Christian s Great Interest, which had a great circulation at home
and abroad. The patronage of the Earl of Eglinton, and his son-in-
law, the Chancellor, Glencairn, saved him from the ejection which
his brother John, in Tarbolton, now an outlaw, had suffered. Burnet
insisted on displacing Guthrie, and in July 1664 sent Forbes,
incumbent at Cadder, to announce his suspension. Notwithstanding,
he was permitted to remain in Fenwick till October 1665, when he
went north to Brechin, and on the tenth of that month died there, at
the premature age of forty-five. Guthrie was one of the best
specimens of the old Scots clergy, gentle of birth, scholarly, genial
and witty, intensely evangelical, and yet not so straitlaced as to
despise a sportsman's shot, cast of a fly, or an end at curling.
According to Dr. John Owen he was ' one of the greatest divines
that ever wrote.' ^
The day after Guthrie's demise Burnet had the satisfaction of
deposing Robert Maxwell, minister at Monkton, another persistent
absentee from his Synod.^
In 1660 vengeance had overtaken John Spreul, town-clerk of
' Wodrow, i. 392 ; ii. 226 ; iv. 137 ; Naphtali, 123. ^ Wodrow, i. 394, 422.
3 For Guthrie's Life, cf. Wodrow, i. 406 ; Row, Blair, 318 note, 430 ; Select Biog., i. 335 ;
ii. 33-8o ; Analecta, \. 47, 169 ; iii. 69 ; Fasti, iii. 168 ; Carslaw, Life, 1-118 ; Aldis, List, 1659.
< Wodrow, i. 411.
ROTHES AND THE RISING OF RULLION GREEN 185
Glasgow, who, after a term in the Tolbooth of Edinburgh, found Spreui's case,
himself not able to break the Covenant, and exiled himself to escape
a worse doom. He returned to skulk about by night. He was
caught, offered the oath, which he refused, and was ordered out of
the kingdom on pain of death. This sentence was remitted seven
years later, when, as a frail old man,' he again ventured home to seek
repose, and found it only in the jail.
The laity suffered crudest tribulation after the royal warrant of
17th September 1664 was issued, calling up all the fines payable by
the eight hundred rebels according to the Act, 9th September 1662,
and fixing the places of receipt. Stringent statutes and proclama-
tions against clerical and lay conventiclers were repeated ad nauseam,
so that an honest man dare hardly sneeze in public.
Meantime, on ^oth May 1664, Chancellor Glencairn died of Death of
' ^ ' ^ _ Chancellor
fever. The story ran that he was distressed over the persecutions ciencairn,
which he had encouraged, lamented that he had raised a devil (Sharp) '^^4.
he could not lay again, and cried, when it was too late, for Douglas
and other Presbyterian clergy to give him a soul-comforting viaticum.^
Two months later the King gave his loyal servant a state funeral in
St. Giles, and left his family to defray the charges.^ In vain Sharp
angled for the vacant Chancellorship, which, after a vacancy of three
years, was given to Rothes.
Foreign politics as well as domestic troubles caused uneasiness Foreign
and anxiety in the King and his advisers. By the English Uni-
formity Act the nonconformist clergy had been ejected from their
pulpits without being forbidden to hold conventicles. In May 1664,
a strict Conventicle Act discharged private religious conventions.
Discontent grew and became dangerous. Malcontents sought safety
over the seas, keeping in touch with their friends by correspondence,
or by secret agents, who flitted about fomenting discord. For daring
to write wifely letters to her husband, Mrs. Robert Trail was put
in prison.^ Before hostilities broke out between England and the
■ Wodrow, i. 75, 413 ; ii. ig6. ' Row, Blair, 469 ; NicoU, 428.
' Wodrow, i. 417 note. * Ibid., 423.
VOL. II. 2 A
i86 THE COVENANTERS
Troubles with Dutch Republic in 1664, some exiled incendiaries promoted an
Fiance. insurrectiott in Britain, in which they expected subsidy and aid from
Holland and France. It came to nought. Colonel Gibby Ker, who
escaped seizure as an accomplice of Colonel Blood, gave the States
glowing accounts of what the westland Whigs would do. Anticipat-
ing the peril, the Scots Estates, presided over by Sharp, voted the
King a handsome subsidy, although the country was confessedly
bankrupt.' The combination of Holland and France emboldened
the Scots malcontents still more, till the English fleet crippled the
Dutch. The States-General passed a secret resolution to assist the
Scots with arms and money as soon as the ' friends of religion '
possessed themselves of suitable towns and forts." Spies had wormed
out these designs, and the terrified Council kept alert. Sharp
advocated the mobilisation of military, ostensibly to meet the Dutch,
but in reality to quell the Covenanters. Directed by Lauderdale,
Chancellor Rothes, fortified by many new commissions, the choicest of which was
Chief Collector of the Fines, managed Scotland. He was too much
a man of the world to be an implacable persecutor, and tradition
asserted that when his conventicling wife invited some rebel ministers
to Leslie House, where the Chancellor saw them, he said, ' My
Lady, I would advise you to keep your chickens in about, else I may
pick up some of them.'^ He was a drag on the truculent bishops.
When muddled, he had visions of the invading ' Butterboxes ' ; when
sober, he declared, ' The ffayns [fines] torments me.' ■*
Alarm of Privy In their alarm the Scots Privy Council dispatched Archbishop
Burnet (who, in writing to Arlington, mentioned the assembling of
armed fanatics, and recommended the employment of the fines in
moulding a militia) to London to expose the danger, and obtain a
warrant for apprehending some westland gentlemen most likely to
lead the Whigs if occasion served.^ Orders came for the incarcera-
tion of these influential suspects in the very fortresses which the
' Act. Pari. Scot., vii. 530 ; Laud. Pap., i. 202, 206, 220.
2 Dodds, Fifty Years, 132-7 ; M'Crie, Vei/c/i, 378.
3 M'Crie, Veitch, 295. ■• LaiuL Pap., i. 206-20.
' loth February 1666 : Rec. Off. Slate Papers, c.xxxvii. 239.
ROTHES AND THE RISING OF RULLION GREEN 1S7
insurgents hoped to seize. Among their number were Major-
General Robert Montgomery, brother of the Earl of Eglinton,
Cunningham of Cunninghamhead, Maxwell of Nether Pollok, Camp-
bell of Cessnock, Mure of Rowallan, Stewart of Coltness, Holborn
of Menstrie, Sir George Munro, Colonel Robert Halket, Chiesley of
Kerswell, Dunlop of that Ilk, and others.^ Sir Patrick Hume and
other gentlemen were also imprisoned at this time. The activity Measures for
11 1 J • suppressing
and brutality with which the ofhcers of the law and the soldiery the whigs.
executed the proclamation of 3rd October, exacting the fines
of the non-jurors, made the law-abiding peasants sullen, their
bolder brethren roused and revolutionary. Itinerant hosts of armed
worshippers now assembled wherever John Osburn, preacher in
Keir — ' the Mountain Beadle ' — convened the faithful to hear, or
partake of the ordinances dispensed by, Welsh, Semple, Blackadder,
Arnot, Douglas, Peden, Reid, Wilkie, and Crookshanks. These
fleet-footed heralds, following Peden's example, rode about in hodden-
grey clothes, armed, and sometimes in masks. Rothes informed
Lauderdale of their gatherings for worship and sacraments in the
wilds, and that he had sent troops to 'have a hit at them.' ^ That
hard hitter was Sir James Turner, who, with one hundred and forty Tumei em-
horse and foot guards, was let loose in the south-west for two months „est.
in the autumn of 1665.' Turks never behaved worse. He in vain
locked Osburn in the Thieves' Hole in Dumfries, without food,
' keeping the key the space of three days himself,' in order to force
him to confess the hiding-place of Welsh and Semple.^
' A gentleman in Galloway ' gave the authors of Naphtali ' Some
Instances of the Sufferings of Galloway and Nithsdale,' which for
barbarity have few parallels in our annals. The soldiers exceeded
the fines scheduled, took quarters where they pleased, rioted on the
best, travelled with hounds and took the nearest sheep, and some-
times threw the children's broth for dog's-meat, raided cattle, ejected
' Wodrow, i. 425 ; Dodds, 139 ; Laud. Pap., i. 206 ; ii. App. A. xxxi. ; Burnet, i. 377.
- Reply to Lauderdale, 24th November 1665 : Laud. Pap., i. 233. ■" Memoirs, 140.
* Wodrow MSS., xl., T. 54 ; M'Crie, VeiMi, 51 note.
r88
THE COVENANTERS
Turner's
device.
Unrest in the
Westlands.
widows, beat complainers, violated women, mocked and cursed
during family worship, and desolated many a happy home.' To add
insult to injury, the oppressed were compelled to subscribe a
certificate ' that Sir James had used them civilly and discreetly,'
which excluded them from all hope of redress.^ When these and
worse offences were afterwards charged against Turner and Ballan-
tine by the Crown, Turner pleaded that he never exceeded his
orders, and had actually shown leniency.^ This infamous business
of fining was a diabolical method of enriching the beggared Royalist
gentry at the expense of the thrifty middle classes, as is proved by
the correspondence of Rothes. The mustering of forces to oppose
the Dutch, in reality a cunning suggestion of Sharp for procuring
available exterminators of the Whigs, so alarmed Rothes, that he
informed Lauderdale that the embodiment of the militia would ruin
Annandale, Atholl, and Airlie, who were dependent on the fines to
save their fortunes — the creditors of Annandale having staved off his
bankruptcy to allow him time to scoop in fines, else he ' will im-
mediately perish in his ffortune yeay at this verie next tearme."* In
these circumstances is it to be marvelled at that a vulgar curate in
Galloway vowed in his pulpit : ' God nor I be hanged over this
pulpit, but I shall gar [force] you all come in from the highest to the
lowest.' '
Sharp reported that the Scots in 1665 were 'aloft and discom-
posed,' unwilling to comply with the Government measures, deluded,
turbulent, and 'gadding after those who are disorderly.'* His
coadjutor, Burnet, feared a conspiracy between the Ulster Presby-
terians and the westland Whigs, a year before Rothes complained
of their actual co-operation in Dumfries in March 1666.^ The 7th
December 1665 was a fateful day in the Privy Council. An Act of
' Nnp/ilali, 136, 287 ; Wodrow, ii. 9 note ; cf. Darmagechan's suflfeiings, Wodrow, iv.
334-6.
- Reg. of Synod of Galloway, 52-3. ' Memoirs, 192.
* Laud. Pap., i. 237-8 : Charles gave Atholl a precept of ^6000 on the fines ; Chron. of
Atholl, 155 : Countess of .Atholl to Countess of Lauderdale, 20th February 1666.
» Wodrow, ii. 9 note. ^ Laing MSS., 784. ' Laud. Pap., i. 235 ; ii. xviii.
ROTHES AND THE RISING OF RULLION GREEN 189
Eviction was then passed, by which the last of the ministerial recusants
and their households were forced to leave the manses for homes
in other parishes to save themselves from jail, while another Act
declared all conventicles to be ' seminaries of separation and rebellion,'
and frequenters of them to be traitors to be apprehended by ' all our
public ministers.'' Another proclamation demanded the compearance
of the eleven leading field-preachers : Welsh of Irongray, Semple
(Kirkpatrick-Durham), Blackadder (Troqueer), Archibald (Dunscore),
Arnot (Tongland), John Douglas (Crailing?), Peden (Glenluce),
William Reid (Rattray), Wilkie (Twynholm), John Crookshanks,
(Rogerton), and John Osburn (Keir).'" In April 1666 the Synod
of Galloway drew Sir James Turner's attention to some of these
preachers.^ The order was ignored.
Early in the year 1666 the Council was staggered by the'AnApoio-
dissemination of a little epoch-making book entitled 'An Apologeti-\^J^J ^f,^^
call Relation of the particular sufferings of the faithfull ministers and
professours of the Church of Scotland since 1660, etc. etc.. By a well-
wisher to the good old cause.' It was printed abroad in 1665 (i2mo,
424 pp.). Its author, John Brown of Wamphray, had timeou.sly
returned a Roland for an Oliver out of his place of exile. This
treatise in twenty-three sections deals trenchantly with every aspect
of the dispute, and powerfully maintains the righteousness of the
principles and actions of the Covenanters, even to justifying their
resistance to their unconstitutional governors. Acknowledging its
dangerous import the Council at once proclaimed it seditious, ordered
the hangman to burn it at the Cross, and attached a fine of ^2000
Scots to any possessor of it. When Sharp forwarded it to
Lauderdale he unclerically styled it 'a damned book,' which had
fired the west and had turned the country's quarrel into a defiance
of the Crown. ^ Mrs. James Guthrie and Sophia, the widow and
daughter of the martyr, had a copy — probably a present from the
author, who vindicates the martyr in it. Because they refused to
' Wodrow, i. 428, 430 note. - Proclaimed 25th January i666 : ibid., ii. 4.
^ Register, 48. * Laiiig MSS., 784, 9th February 1666.
I90
THE COVENANTERS
Proclamation
of repressive
measures.
Cause of the
rising in the
Glenkens,
1666.
State what they knew about the work they were banished to a close
prison in Zetland.'
In March Turner was again sent south with one hundred and
twenty foot-guards.' From his headquarters in Dumfries he gladly
sent out his booted apostles to begin business 'at the old rate,' as
Burnet grimly recorded the fact. Irritation succeeded irritation.
The ' Commission for Discipline,' passed on 7th December, was now
operating, so that influential persons who refused to help the curates
in their so-called discipline and informing were liable to be fined and
outlawed. Still worse, a ' Proclamation for procuring obedience to
ecclesiastical authority, October 11, 1666,' made proprietors liable
for the orderliness of all residents on their lands, with power to
evict the nonconformists, also magistrates liable for citizens in burghs,
and heads of houses for their servants — the escheits as a reward falling
to the proprietors, whom failing, to the informers.' Repressive
measures, conceived by Sharp, Burnet, and the Privy Council, and
now so specialised that there was no hole for a church mouse to
escape by, made the stalwart men of the Glenkens ripe for a rising
had they dared, being aware that two veterans, Dalyell and Drum-
mond, with terrible reputations from Russian wars, now commanded
the army. In October 1666 the Bishop and Synod of Galloway
remonstrated with Turner for his illegalities in Kelton and Girthon
of which the heritors complained.'^
The atrocities of Turner's ruffians were more than Gallovidian
blood could longer stand. It was reported that the leaders of the
insurgents incited them by stating that Dalyell was coming to hang
every man at his own door and that one hundred had been hanged
in Glasgow.* They rose in arms.^ It fell out thus : John Maclellan,
' Wodrow, ii. 7 ; Reg. Sec. Cone., 8th February 1666. - Memoirs, 142.
' Wodrow, ii. 15 note ; cf. Act. Pari. Scot., vii. 455, 456 ; Laud. Pap., ii. Ixxiv.
* Register 0/ Synod, 68. '' State Papers (Charles 11.), 76, 1 10.
" I have compiled this account of the rising from the following works: Naphtali, 137;
Turner, Memoirs, 146; Nicoll, 451; Kirkton, 229; Burnet, i. 418; Blackadder, Memoirs,
121 ; Ljiud. Pap., i. 245, 248, 251 ; M'Crie, Wallaces Narrative, 355 ; ibid, Sempil MS., 380 ;
Hind Let Loose, 108 ; Row, Blair, 501 ; Life of A. Reid, 17 ; Wodrow, ii. 17 ; Wodroiu MSS.,
Declaration of Whigs, xxxii., 59 ; ibid.. True Relation of the Sufferings in Nithsdale and
ROTHES AND THE RISING OF RULLION GREEN 191
laird of Barscob/ in Balmaclellan parish, with three other fugitives
for conscience' sake, forsook their hiding in the rainy hills to seek
food in the quaint clachan of St. John's, Dairy, on Tuesday morning,
13th November 1666. On their way they met some peasants, driven
by Corporal George Deanes and three soldiers of Sir Alexander
Thomson's company of the guards — the fine-raising garrison of Dairy
— proceeding to thresh the corn of a poor old farmer named Grier, in
order to obtain the fine for absence from church, which Grier had
not paid before fleeing from his home. The wanderers were angry, but
passed by, meantime saying nothing. They had reached the clachan
alehouse and sat down to breakfast when the village resounded with
the cry that Grier had been seized, bound ' hand and foot like a beast,
ready to be carried along,' and that his captors ' were threatening to
strip him naked and set him on a hot gridiron because he could not
pay.' Barscob's party ran and caught the fiends red-handed. -
'Why do you use the honest man so?' cried Barscob. 'How Rescue by
dare you bind the old man.-" asked others. ' How dare you challenge?' ""^° '
replied the King's men. Swords were drawn. Barscob, for lack of
ball, rammed his tobacco pipe into his pistol, fired, and grounded
Deanes beside his victim. The comrades of Deanes, after a spirited
defence, surrendered. The news soon reached Balmaclellan, where a
conventicle, probably conducted by Alexander Robertson, was in
progress." At this very time the evicted minister, Thomas Verner,
Robertson, and other preachers were engaging the attention of
Turner, by request of the Synod.* The conventiclers, fearing
Galloway, 60, 61, 62; Mein's Letters, Record Office (Charles 11.), 76, no; 102, 268; 156
275; 106, 107, 295; Dodds, Fifty Years, 144; A'arr. of Battle (1856); Law, 16; Chon.
of Frasers, 463; Fleming, Six Saints, var. loc. ; Scots Wort/iies, art. M'Kail, Paton,
etc. ; fust. Rec, i. 159-86 (Scot. Hist. See); Ayrshire Ballads— 'The Battle,' etc.— 40 ;
OmonA, Lord Advocates, i. 189; J. K. Hewison {Scotsman, 14th September 1901), 'Fresh
Light on Rullion Green'; Terry, The Pentland Rising; (igo^); The Register of the Synod,
(Kirkcudbright, 1856); Stark, Bool: of Xiripatrici--Durha/n, 7S ; Thomson, Martyr Graves,
1-18; R. L. Stevenson, The Pentland Rising: a Page of History. 1666; Reg. Sec. Cone.
' Barscob House still stands. On the door lintel are the initials and arms of William
Maclellan and M. Gordon, his wife ; on a window the date 1648.
■■= M'Crie, Sempil MS., Notices of Wallace in Veitch, 382.
"- ftnt. Rec, I. 186. * Vernor or Warner, April 1666 : Register, 48.
192
THE COVENANTERS
Muster of
conventiclers.
Capture of
Turner in
Dumfries.
punishment for implication in the affair at Dairy, boldly captured the
local garrison of sixteen men, killing one in the ruffle, on Wednesday.
Thus one rash emergent led to another. These united parties,
forecasting trouble, concluded that their only safety lay in now
capturing Turner himself, and holding him as hostage till their
grievances were redressed.^ With Turner in custody they could
approach the King and Council with a chance of being listened to.
To march to the Capital and in person present their petition was an
after-resolve. Turner's ' inconveniences ' made it possible. Fleet
feet ran through friendliest of parishes, and a muster of well-wishers
was summoned to the historic church of Irongray, four miles west
of Dumfries, before sundown." That night dauntless Deanes rode
in to Turner and, showing his wounds, swore he had been shot for
refusing to subscribe the Covenant.^ The jovial colonel sent for
his men and retired to bed indisposed. The increasing band of
insurgents, fifty-four riders in cloaks on Galloway nags led by
Barscob, and one hundred and fifty pedestrians led by John Neilson
of Corsock and probationer Robertson, were impeded by torrential
rain and the fallen night, and did not reach the rendezvous till after
break of day on Thursday. Here a mysterious person called ' Mr.'
or ' Captain ' Andrew Gray, whose antecedents remained a puzzle to
Turner, appeared and, producing a commission, installed himself as
commander. He rode on 'a little beast' at the head of Barscob's
troop over Devorgilla's Bridge into Dumfries, where a small party
beset Bailie Finnie's house and called on Turner to surrender. No
warrior bold replied. At the window appeared a vision of ' night
cap, night gown, drawers, and socks,' and a voice was heard crying
for quarter. Neilson, who was ' a meek and generous gentleman,'
promised it, and the fierce dragoon descended between two rows of
* Brit. Mus., Add. MSS., 23245, fol. 6, Declaration of Peniland Rebels ; ibid., fol. 7, Council
to Charles II. Turner was appointed Lieutenant-Colonel on 28tli July 1666: Reg. Sec.
Cone, Acta, 52.
- The local landlords were interrelated by blood and marriage. In the Glenkens the
strong clan of the Gordons, one of whom married Barscob, were supporters of the Covenant.
Neilson of Corsock married Mary Maclellan. Corsock is in Kirkpatrick-Durham parish,
Kirkcudbrightshire. ^ Turner, Metnoirs, 148.
Barscob Huusi-, HahnaclL-llan
hunsrav LIiuilIi
The Clachan Alehouse, Dahy
K"'"-*
LJuiuU II. :j
Sir James Turner
1 lie H.iulelielil :\i Rullion Green
Si. Hiiile's Church. l;uui;l.i^
THE PKNTLAND RISING— FROM D.ALRY TO RULI.ION GREKN
ROTHES AND THE RISING OF RULLION GREEN 193
drawn blades and primed pistols — a ludicrous picture of peace. Gray
was about to shoot him there, when Neilson, interposing, gallantly
said : ' You shall as soon kill me, for I have given him quarters.'
It was about nine o'clock. Gray ransacked Turner's chest and
secured his papers and over six thousand merks. He mounted the
colonel's charger, and had Sir James in his flannels placed on the
little, discarded, barebacked Galloway, which was led by a halter to
the Cross, where the Covenanters, as was their wont, pledged a
health to the King, swore allegiance to the Covenant, and reviled the
bishops. Then they marched to Nith Sands, opposite the green
slope where Blackadder's church stood, in order to hold a council of
war. Meantime arms were searched for, and in a scuffle another
soldier was killed. They permitted Turner to dress before taking
him with them. The cavalcade, now better armed, resumed its fateful
march up Cluden and Cairn to Glencairn Kirk, where a halt was
made. All night they marched over the moorland to Dairy, some
thirty-two miles in all, that day (i6th). On an alarm they marched
through part of the next night to the safer wilds of Carsphairn. They
had no plans and no leader, for Gray mysteriously disappeared at
this place. They used Turner well. Robertson and other messengers
were dispatched to Ayrshire and Edinburgh to solicit succour and
encouragement from sympathisers.
Meantime Stephen Irvine, a Dumfries bailie, rode to the Capital Irvine rides
with the news." Rothes was on his way to London. Sharp, as l,°,h1!ei."'^^
interim president of the Council, had the acceptable opportunity to
gratify his vindictive spirit, which is manifested in the communication
from the Council to Rothes recommending, as a first precaution, the
apprehension of all landlords still refusing to disown the Covenant.
The new commander-in-chief, Lieutenant-General Dalyell, was
ordered to march to the west, with the regulars and probably some
Midlothian Fencibles, in all two thousand five hundred foot and
six troops of horse.^ A proclamation on the 21st declared the
rising to be rebellion, and all who refused to lay down arms ' incor-
' Reg. Sec. Cone, Ac/a, 602. - .S/a/e Papers (Charles 11.), 1 16, 248.
VOL. II. 2 B
194
THE COVENANTERS
March of the
regulars and
insurgents in
November
1666.
rigible and desperate traitors incapable of mercy and pardon.' ' The
Fencibles were mustering in selected counties.
The regulars under Dalyell and Drummond began their march
from all quarters on Sabbath, iSth November, and reached Glasgow
on the 20th, Kilmarnock 22nd, Mauchline 24th, Strathaven 25th,
Lanark, afternoon of 26th, Calder 27th, Currie and Rullion Green
28th.- The insurgents were moving advisedly through districts well
known to be hallowed by memories of struggles for faith and freedom,
bivouacking in the parish churches by night, and inviting recruits
by day, as they passed through Dalmellington (18), Tarbolton (19),
Ayr (20), Coylton (21), Ochiltree {22), Cumnock (23), Muirkirk and
Douglas (24), Lesmahagow and Lanark (Sunday, 25), Bathgate and
Newbridge (26-27), Colinton (27-28), Rullion Green (Wednesday, 28).
The march of the Covenanters was not without curious episodes.
The host was a moving conventicle sounding with prayer and sermon.
At Dalmellington, Welsh of Irongray came into camp, and social
Turner, anxious to hear this famous divine's inordinate grace, pledged
a tankard of ale to the field-preacher, to enjoy whose intemperate
eloquence many flocked in. Welsh went home to beat up recruits.
John Ross, a Mauchline man, and John Shields, Mearns, were sent
to scout, and being captured near Kilmarnock, were afterwards tried
and hanged.^ At the Bridge of Doon, James Wallace, proprietor of
James Wallace. Auchaus — of the stout stock that gave Scotland its greatest hero, an
old campaigner in the Civil Wars, who had fought for Crown and
Covenant, and been taken at Kilsyth and Dunbar, a former lieutenant-
colonel of the foot-guards — joined the expedition and was appointed
commander. This Christian soldier, like Havelock of our day, was a
man of piety and purity, whose patriotism and love of justice impelled
him to the side of the persecuted, so that he formed a striking con-
trast to the mercenary swashbucklers he opposed. To the admiration
of Turner, he drilled his seven hundred men splendidly.
' Wodrow, ii. 20 ; Reg. Sec. Cone, Acta, 628.
= Drummond to Rothes, 29th November 1666 : Scot. Hist. Rev., ill. 12, 451 ; iv. 13, 114.
^ Their heads are buried in the Laigh Churchyard, Kilmarnock ; cf. Thomson, Martyr
Graves, 287-9.
Commander
ROTHES AND THE RISING OF RULLION GREEN 195
Fearing an attack from Dalyell, the Covenanters turned into the
wild country round Cumnock, and in a tempest of rain plunged over
disastrous Ayrsmoss on to the Moor Kirk of Kyle, wherein they lay
all night drenched, and without food or fire. No wonder Turner
recorded : ' I never sawe lustier fellows then these foote were, or Turners
better marchers.'' Daunted and dashed, some more craven, coun- °^'"J^°" ° "^
selled by the Irish preacher Andrew M'Cormick and the probationer
Robertson, wished to give up the enterprise. Even sapient, pro-
phetic Peden disappeared through the mist. Intrepid Wallace defied
the storm, pushed into Douglasdale, and gave his men shelter in
St. Bride's among the tombs of the warrior Douglases. A council
of war was held, with the usual religious exercises. Their resolve to
proceed was fixed. Their aim was defence of the Faith. They had
the honour and chivalry to reject a motion that Turner now should
be pistolled. When the force arrived in Lanark they were a thousand
strong, one-half being mounted, with four or five experienced officers
only to lead them.
When daylight broke on Monday the 26th, they assembled to Covenant
renew the Solemn League and Covenant. John Guthrie, evicted Lanark. ^
minister of Tarbolton, standing on the stairs of Lanark Tolbooth,
preached to the infantry; at the Townhead, Gabriel Semple addressed
the horsemen. The Covenant was recited and all joyfully swore it
with uplifted hands. At this time a preliminary manifesto, explain-
ing the origin and aim of the insurrection, was framed, to the effect
that they were assembled to maintain a bond of self-defence, to
uphold the trust in the Covenant, to protest against the apostasy of
the times, and to resist cruel usage."
At Lanark a suspected intriguer, William Lawrie of Blackwood,
factor to the Earl of Douglas, came to express the desire of the Duke
of Hamilton for a peaceable settlement ; and again at Newbridge he
arrived on his fruidess errand. To Colinton he brought a proposal
from Dalyell that the rebels should accept the terms of the Govern-
' Metnoirs, 164.
'•^ Wodrow MSS., xxxii. 59 ; Hist., ii. 25 ; Declaraiioti of Ike Western Party why they
Lifted Arms ; Add. MSS., Ifrit. Mus., 23245, fol. 6,
196 THE COVENANTERS
ment, to which they replied that they were simply going to the
Council to petition for redress. Dalyell honourably sent this com-
munication to the Council, who being dissatisfied, responded that all
the Government could accede to was their submission, with the
liberty to petition for mercy. The persecuted knew exactly what
this meant to 'Sharp of that Ilk,' but it seems certain that the terms
of this reply never reached the petitioners, who considered that there
was a ' cessation ' sinfully broken by the commencement of hostilities.'
March lo Dalyell entered Lanark the day Wallace left it. Wallace's route
'" ""^^ ■ was north to Bathgate, ' through pitiful broken moores,' so closely
pressed by Drummond's horse that he was forced to march on through
a sleet storm in the darkest of nights (26th-27th), rather than halt and
be chilled to death in the shelterless waste. When they arrived at
Newbridge they were a bewildered, wretched rabble — still uncon-
querable. Rather than fall out of the ranks they tied themselves
together, and but few deserted. At length the frowning citadel of
Edinburgh came in view, and the sheltering church of Colinton, four
miles from the Capital. They had been advised to expect allies in
Midlothian who never showed face. The miserable bivouack in
Colinton Churchyard, newly mantled with frosted snow, was disturbed
early in the morning of the 28th by sounds of musketry. It was an
affair of outposts, and the Edinburgh Fencibles drew the first
Covenanting blood. Wallace lifted his eyes to the hills for aid and
safety. The Pentlands looked pure and glorious : they proved cold,
pitiless, cruel. Up and away trudging to their doom, the insurgents,
still encouraged by thirty-two ministers, followed Wallace over ground
where formerly Cromwell and Le.slie manoeuvred, swinging round the
hillfoots by way of Dreghorn Castle, Fulford (Woodhouselee), and
Flotterstonc (Ingliston) Bridge to Rullion Green — an ancient mart."
The last sianii RulHon Green was well known to southern herds and drovers.
Green. Nevcr had 'such beasts' — that is the bitter taunt of Maitland of
Hatton, one of their slayers — entered that tryst — soon to be a
' Naphtali, 140.
■' ' House of ^t^lir' market is mentioned in Act. Purl. Scot. (1581), iii. 238.
ROTHES AND THE RISING OF RULLION GREEN 197
shambles. They looked like hunted sheep that had escaped the
shearing, ragged in pelt and dirty in cloot — veritable 'rullions,' as
Ayrshire folk style unkempt characters to this day. As fast as foot
could carry him, Dalyell was on the way from Currie, down the old
drove road between Capelaw and Bellshill, past Kirktown and St.
Catherine's Chapel — now submerged in the Compensation Pond.
Wallace's trained eye chose the last stand on the south-east base
of Turnhouse Hill, on a slope called Rullion Green, Rullim Green,
Yorling's Green, Gallowhill. A broad, verdant glacis stretches up to
a small plateau, carpeted with wire grass and bilberry bushes. It lies
to the south-west of the monument to his fallen comrades.* A deep
natural ditch bounds the slope on the north-west, intersecting the old
drove road. Overhead was Turnhouse Hill, 1500 feet high. To the
south rose Lawhead, a lovely green boss in summer. To the west and
south the ground stretches in solid waves, as if frozen in their rolling,
to the base of Carnethy Hill. Between Lawhead and Turnhouse the
Covenanters stood. The trysting-place had on the north a declivity of
three hundred feet in half a mile till it reached the red-breasted braes
of the Castlelaw Hill, beneath which the Glencorse Burn 'drums
and pours in cunning wimples in that glen.'^
Wallace made three dispositions. Barscob and his Galloway ni^position of
troop he stationed on his right, near Lawhead. Major Joseph fj^.^^ '^
Learmont, laird of Newholm, was in command of the horse on the
left wing. Wallace directed the foot in the centre. A pioneer party
of Drummond's cavalry, under Ogilvy, made a gallant onset upon
Learmont, only emptying a few saddles before retreating. The armed
pastors joined in the fray, and two of them, Crookshanks and
M'Cormick, bit the dust. Drummond, perceiving that he could not
dislodge Wallace without infantry reinforcements, drew off his cavalry
and waited on Castlelaw Hill till the tardy Dalyell appeared. It was
near sunset before Dalyell had his army marshalled in regulation
order — himself, Atholl, and Airlie at the head of a body of cavalry on
' This stone was formerly placed more to the north-east, and was lifted to this position
by a late proprietor. 2 r | Stevenson to Crockett.
198
THE COVENANTERS
General
Dalyell's
position.
Condition of
the insurgents.
the left wing, Drummond with the Life Guards, Commissioner's troop,
and other horse on the right wing, and the infantry under Linlitligow
in the centre, and kept as the reserve. The Covenanters watched
Dalyell coolly riding about examining their position — a figure too
' kenspeckle ' to be mistaken or forgotten, grim and grizzly of aspect,
with his long beard unshorn since the fall of Charles's head, the very
' Muscovite Beast ' of their imagination. The Royalists, on the other
hand, saw against the dusky sky-line the figures of ecstatic preachers
— Welsh and Semple throwing their arms into the air like the seers
of old, and heard them crying ' The Great God of Jacob,' ' The Great
God of Jacob,' 'See the Lord of Hosts fighting for us!' and other
Judaic slogans meant to fan the courage of their doomed brethren.'
The hillsides re-echoed the melodies of the 71st and 78th Psalms.
It was not till after an exercise of prayer and praise that the
Covenanters resolved to fight should they be attacked ; still they
expected some peaceful answer from the Council, and they disclaimed
all desire to shed blood. For them it was an unequal fight. They
had only sixty muskets, forty pair of pistols, and twenty pounds of
loose powder." It must have been with great contempt that Dalyell,
supported by three thousand well-armed and disciplined troops, saw
the nine hundred irregulars, under Wallace and Learmont, stand before
him. Their sorry condition is best described in a contemporary
manuscript : —
■ It was a Januar or December,
Or else the end of cauld November,
When I did see the outlaw Whigs
Lye scattered up and down the rigs.
Some had hoggers,* some straw boots ;
Some uncovered legs and coots ;
Some had halbards; some iiad durks;
Some had crooked swords like Turks ;
Some had slings, and some had flails
Knit with eel and oxen tails ;
Some had spears and some had pikes ;
Some had spades which delvyl dykes ;
' Rothes to Lauderdale : Laud. Pap., i. 267.
Ibid., ii. 63.
- Knitted leggings.
ROTHES AND THE RISING OF RULLION GREEN 199
Some had guns with rusty ratches ;
Some had firey peats for matches ;
Some had bows but wanted arrows ;
Some had pistols without marrows ;
Some the coulter of a plough ;
Some had syths men and horse to hough ;
And some with a Lochaber axe
Resolved to give Dalyell his paiks.'
Turner, who was still under guard near the Lawhill, made a compact The fiyht on
, . ... ii-i r ^ Rullion Green
With the guardsmen to save his lite, and that in the event 01 the
Covenanters losing the day he would give them quarter and plead for
their release. When victory crowned the royal arms, Turner marched
down with the guard to his comrades. But the Privy Council ignored
his promise of quarter. On the rally of the trumpets and the roll of
the drums a squadron of cavalry from Drummond's extreme right
advanced uphill and poured a volley into Learmont's men. The fire
was returned with spirit. A sword-fight ensued in which Captain
John Paton of Meadowhead and Captain Arnot showed prowess,
turning the enemy ' after they stuck in each other's birse for ane
quarter of ane hour.' ' They mixed like chessmen in a bag,' was
Drummond's graphic description of the struggle.' Wallace's pike-
and scythe-men rushed down the steep and drove first the foot and
then the dragoons into flight. Drummond shot out his Commis-
sioner's troop to rally the fugitives, but the headlong assault of the
ugly scythes tied to long poles repelled these supports. In this melee
the Duke of Hamilton just escaped death or capture by the timely
interference of his neighbour, Dean, afterwards Bishop, Ramsay ;
while Learmont, in the opposite interest, escaped death just by the
skin of his teeth. The Covenanters pursued too far. With the
King's guard Drummond caught the struggling mass on the flank and
hurled them into confusion. Wallace opposed this movement by
sending supports which weakened his right command. That was
Dalyell's opportunity. His centre and left were unimpaired. He
' Drummond to Rothes, ' Pentland, November 1666.' This graphic letter from the
battlefield, preserved in the Car/e MSS., LX.xu. g iii., is printed in the Sco/. Hisl. Rev.,
iii. No. 12, 451.
200
THE COVENANTERS
Dalyell's
victorious
charge.
Captain
Paton's
heroism.
rode his three regiments of horse right among the half-armed mob of
pedestrians forming Wallace's main battle. Barscob, with his eighty
little gallant Galloways, might vainly try to break such a shock before
it reached the swaying mass; nor was Paton's notched blade of any
avail. Fierce Dalyell and his fresh irresistible horse swept through
the crowd as over a field of grass, and the white snow was reddened
with blood. Till this charge Linlithgow's infantry were looking on
and blowing their matches, affording light for Turner and stragglers
to return. They followed Dalyell and consummated his victory.
The blaring trumpets, rolling drums, and blazing firearms created an
irretrievable stampede.
Little knots of men fought it out. Among the last to leave was
Paton — altogether, in the language of that day, 'a pretty man,' burly,
keen-eyed, hero-like, a veteran of the German wars, a campaigner at
Kilsyth, Philiphaugh, and Worcester. Dalyell, his old comrade, would
fain have captured him. Pistols they emptied on each other. As the
story still is told at westland firesides — when the smoke cleared, bold
Paton saw his 'pistol ball to hop down upon Dalyell's boots,' and
smelled the devil. He carried the antidote in his pocket. Super-
stitiously believing his antagonist to be lead-proof, he charged his
second pistol with silver and presented it. But the necromantic
Dalyell wilily stepped aside and let his servant get the fatal bullet.
Troopers were urged to seize Paton. As one trooper fell at his feet
with a cloven skull, Paton cried to his baffled pursuers, ' Take my
compliments to your master, and tell him I cannot come to sup to-
night.' Many others, light of foot, escaped down the gullies and over
the hills, but others, discovered by the rising moon, fell to the relent-
less blades that followed them for miles. A miserable ballad has it
thus : —
' The cleverest men stood in the van.
The Whigs they took their heels and ran ;
But such a raking ne'er was seen
As the raking o' the Rullion Green.'
The fighting horsemen had a better fate meantime, for we may infer
from the lists of country gentlemen penalised for their participation in
ROTHES AND THE RISING OF RULLION GREEN 201
the fight that the better mounted and unwounded men escaped in the
darkness.
The moon gave the soldiers light while they stripped the bodies of Losses by the
the slain.' Victors and vanquished lay on the field all night. Mein, ^
in his account of the fight, declares : ' The army say they never
saw men fight more gallantly than the rebels nor endure more ; the
general was forced to use stratagem to defeat them.'^ What is not
credible— he boasts : ' Not one of the King's men was killed and only
a few wounded.' ' Charles Maitland of Hatton, who fought with
Dalyell, mentions that one hundred Covenanters fell on the field, and
three hundred in flight.* Both averments are open to question, even
although the Council had the Justices forewarned to intercept all
fugitives. Rothes acknowledged the capture of one hundred and
twenty prisoners. The peasantry of the Lothians were blamed for
murdering some of the fugitives.^ The Royalist gentry made diligent
search for insurgents. Annandale and Drumlanrig, who were des-
perate for fines, forfeitures, and remunerative military employment,
brought in the most prisoners.**
Sharp was delighted with the victory of Dalyell, and wrote at sharp's delight
once to the King assuring him that only nightfall prevented the ,,j(,,orj,
extermination of his enemies, and to Lauderdale, praying : ' God
make us thankful and give us hearts to improve this so seasonable
a mercy for the furtherance of his Majesty's service in the Kingdom.'
Shortly afterwards he resigned a grant of Inchaffray Abbey in favour
of the hero of the hour.^ The victory was celebrated by the firing
of the guns of the Castle. While the half-naked prisoners filed into
Haddock's Hole and other prisons — eighty wounded were confined
in Heriot's Wark — the Council sat down to frame a letter craving
the King's authority to proclaim their policy of extirpation.'* Some
' Next day the godly women of Edinburgh went out and buried them in shrouds.
Wallace, Narrative, in M'Crie, Veitch, 428.
'^ iMein to Williamson, 30th November : State /'(z/^;-j- (Charles 11.), 106, 301. ^ Ibid., 295.
^ Laud. Pap., i. 251. Naphtali, 144, gives forty westland men slain and '130 and
upward ' captured ; four or five soldiers slain. ^ Wallace, Narrative, 425.
" Laud. Pap., i. 257. ^ Ibid., 259. * Wodrow, ii. 35, 36 ; Passages
in the Lives of Helen Alexander, etc., 4 : AV^"-. Sec. Cone, Acta, 628.
\0L. II. 2 C
202
THE COVENANTERS
Dalyell
clamours
for the
extermination
of the Whigs.
fugitives fled to Kintyre, which Rothes described as a ' nest of
Cneaffs ' — worthless persons. Argyll now had no doubt as to what
course to follow. He wrote to Lauderdale : ' The outed ministers
that medled in the late rebellion I think deserve torture,' while those
who refused submission ' should be put wher ther needs no troops
to suppress them.' Truly times had changed quickly, when the heir
of the proto-martyr should be among the first advocates of racks,
boots, halters, and hangmen's knives for Covenanters, whom he
styled 'fighting phanaticks.' He vowed that if they abused his
tenderness, 'they shall need no other to cute their throats.'' After
this, is it surprising that 'The Muscovite Beast' and other mer-
cenaries, with a like keen scent for blood and loot, should plead
the gospel of extermination, praying as Dalyell did to Lauderdale,
'heist us moir armes and bandeliers,' since there was no other remedy
' vithout the inhabetens be remouet or destroiet ' ? '^ Such sons of
the saints and martyrs goaded on the persecutors, while the very
prelates sharpened the swords of these e.xecutioners of the faithful
and law-abiding adherents of a Covenant which the bishops and
many clergy subscribed — and broke.
Rothes rushed down from London angry at his removal from
its scenes of pleasure. The Council, concluding that the rising was
preconcerted, probably by Loudoun and other suspects, resolved to
discover its origin by torture. The day after the battle they asked
sanction for Sharp's policy of extirpation, and issued a proclamation
making it treason to harbour fifty-seven leaders of the insurgents,
including Colonel Wallace, Captain Maxwell, younger of Monreith,
Maclellan of Barscob, Welsh of Scar, Welsh of Cornley, Kirko of
Sundaywell, Mure of Caldwell,^ Ker of Kersland, many clergy, and
others who were not concerned in the affair. Rothes made a progress
to pacify ' those parts where the frenzy first took its rise.' The King
' Argyll to Lauderdale, 2Sth January 1667 : Letters, 41, 47, 56.
- Dalyell to Lauderdale, 6th December 1666: Laud. Pap., i. 255.
' Dalyell got his estate, nth July 1670, for his 'great losses . . . much hardship and
sutferings by long imprisonment, banishment, and otherwise for his constant loyalty to
his Majesty ' : Wodrow, ii. 75 note ; Reg. Sec. Cone., Acta, 628.
ROTHES AND THE RISING OF RULLION GREEN 203
appointed a Justiciary Commission, composed of nobles, barons, and
officers — Hamilton, Montrose, Argyll, Dalyell, etc. — to itinerate and
try rebels.'
The Council thought they had secured two prisoners, M'Kail and Hugh M'Kaii's
Neilson of Corsock, who could divulge everything. M'Kail had been
leading a fugitive life since he fled after preaching the too true
sermon, in which he said 'that the Church and People of God had
been persecuted both by a Pharaoh upon the Throne, a Haman in
the State, and a Judas in the Church.' This bonny lad of twenty-
five years —
' For he had beauty which might well endear.
No blemish in his body did appear' —
was now a fainting consumptive unable to keep step with the
Galloway herds, whom he left at Cramond. He fell into the hands
of the scouts of Dalyell on the Braids. M'Kail would tell nothing.
They showed him the suggestive boots, and asked him to ponder
them, and to becoriie ingenuous to prevent their use. Meantime To'ture of
1 -NT •! 1 • • 11 • 1 1 Neilson and
they experimented on Neilson, whose excruciating yells might 'havewKaii.
moved a heart of stone.' ^ M'Kaii's simple story was that Turner
caused the rising. Into the marrow-squirting boots his limbs must
go ; and strike never so lightly as Dunmore, the bribable hangman,
might, his eleven blows on the emaciated spindle-shank afforded
the devil's own entertainment to the patrons of bishops. Inflamma-
tory fever held the victim in his dungeon on his trial day. All
Rothes could report was, that the precipitancy of the insurgents
had spoiled the designs of others, who ' were not to have sturd yet
for several months.'^
Lest the wounded mig^ht die, batches of them were brought to Trial of ihe
trial in the Justiciary Court in Edinburgh — the first on the 5th
December — Nisbet^ being prosecutor, and Lockhart and Mackenzie
' Wodrow, i. 51 note. ^ Kirkton, 252 ; Naphtali, 163, 268 ; A True Relation, etc.
' Rothes to Lauderdale, 20th December 1666 : Laud. Pap., \. 265.
■* It was to Lord Advocate Nisbet that Sir Archibald Primrose said: 'Tliou old rotten
devill, what art thou doing? thou wilt never rest till thou turn the fury of this people from
the bishop upon thy self and gett thy self stabbed some day' : Kirkton, 284 ; Wodrow, ii. 39.
204 THE COVENANTERS
being the counsel in defence. The indictment bore that the prisoners
were guilty of treason, rebellion — laesa majestas, having taken Turner,
plundered houses, renewed the Covenant, and slain the King's
soldier's. Their plea, that they had received quarter, was met by
Nisbet's reply that there was no justum bellum. Others pleaded
that had they known of the proclamation they would have laid down
their arms. All acknowledged participation in the rebellion. ' The
Assize all in one voice by the mouth of Sir Alexander Urquhart
of Cromarty their chancellor fand all and every one of the pannels
guilty . . . ffolows the Sentence. My Lord Justice Clerk and
Justice Deputes decerns and adjudges the saids Captain Andrew
Arnot, Major John M'Culloch, Gavin Hamilton in Maudslie in
Carlouk Parish, John Gordon of Knockbreck, Cristall Strang, tenant
in Kilbride, Robert Gordon, brother to John Gordon of Knock-
breck, John Parker, walker in Kirkbride Parishin, John Ross in
Mauchline, James Hamilton, tenant in Kithempor, and John Shiells
in Titwood, as being found guilty by an Assize, of the treasonable
crimes forsaid, to be taken ffriday the 7th December instant betwixt
2 and 4 hours afternoon to the Mercate Cross of Edinbrugh and
there to be hanged upon a Gibbett till they be dead, and after they
are dead, their heads and right arms to be cutt off and disposed
upon as the Lords of his Majesties Privy Council shall think fitt, and
all their lands, heretages, goods and gear to be forfault and escheat to
his Majesties use for the treasonable crimes forsaids which was pro-
Execution of nounced for Doom.'' The ten were simultaneously hanged on a
rthDecemb« l^^ge cross-trcc, and thereafter mutilated: the ten right hands being
1666. sent for fixture on Lanark Tolbooth ; the heads of the Gordons
and M'Culloch to Kirkcudbright; the heads of the Hamiltons,
Parker, and Strang to Hamilton ; those of Ross and Shiells to Kilmar-
nock ; and that of Arnot to the Watergate." They died gallantly,
' Book of Adjournal ; Just. Rec, i. 159-85. Their 'Joint Testimony' is in Naplitali, 215.
^ JVaphtali, 162 ; Martyr Graves, 244, 287. To the general reader an excellent guide to the
places famous in Covenanting story is A. B. Todd's The Homes, Haunts, and Battlefields of the
Covenanters (Edin., 18S6, 1888), 2 vols.; also Rev. J. H. Thomson, The Martyr Graves of
Scotland, 1903. For the ' Testimonies ' of Arnot and Shiells, cf Naphtali, 224, 226.
ROTHES AND THE RISING OF RULLION GREEN 205
wrote a correspondent of the time, 'adhering to the Covenant,
declaring they never intended in the least any rebellion, and all of
them prayed most fervently for His Majesty's interest and against
his enemies . . . [and that] their blood lay only at the prelates' door.' '
The brothers Gordon died locked in each other's arms. Their Punishments
, ., . , . . in Galloway.
Joint Testimony corroborates that of others describing the atrocities
in Galloway.'- A few instances may suffice : M'Culloch of Barholm
paid 1500 merks as Middleton's exaction, had thirty soldiers at eight-
pence a day quartered on him, paid Turner a hundred pounds, had
his estate forfeited, had his eldest son thrown into prison for a year
after his father's execution, while his wife's portion was forfeited
and given to Queensberry in r68i and afterwards repurchased.
Knockbreck, in Borgue, paid dearly for the laird's religion— the
fines, crops seized, plenishing twice sold, the house thrice turned into
a garrison and cleaned out by Highlanders, all except the trenchers
and spoons — useless to these rogues — which were left for Grierson
of Lag, together with some bestial they had not devoured, and two
sons, right 'gallant Gordons,' hanged.
John Neilson, a godly man, sheltered the evicted Welsh of Iron- Neiisonof
gray and Semple of Kirkpatrick-Durham, and turned Corsock
mansion into a church for them.^ For nonconformity he was sent to
Kirkcudbright jail, had Corsock turned into a cavalry barracks, was
mulcted in about two thousand pounds Scots, and made a bankrupt
wanderer. His wife and family were evicted by soldiers, who
destroyed his plenishing and sold his stock. His tenantry fared no
better. Yet this noble fellow stood between Gray's pistol and its just
mark, for which, be it remembered to Turner's credit, he tried to
requite Neilson by pleading for his life after Pentland. Wodrow
records that he failed to save Neilson on account of the representa-
tions of Dalgleish, a curate. Neilson's devoted wife, 'the eminently
godly Mary Maclellan,' was brutally used ; in her absence her house
• Mein to Sir Joseph Williamson, Under-Secretary of State, 6th December 1666: Siaii
Papers (Charles 11.), 106, 107, 325 ; Dodds, m his J'ifiy Years, quotes many of these important
letters. ' Naphtali, 215, etc. ^ Wodrow, ii. 49-53.
206
THE COVENANTERS
Doom of
Neilson,
was sacked, her household, five children and a baby, turned adrift,
the tenantry rooked by Ballantine, and one of them, with a wife and
infant, put in prison for speaking to the laird ; and, last hardship of
all, ' Bonnie Dundee ' came and ' eated up the Whigues,' as he con-
fessed. So what with John, the heir, forfeited and in exile, and
Thomas, his brother, in jail for non-churchgoing, no one could have
hailed the Restoration more gladly than the godly wife who rests
in the churchyard of Kirkpatrick-Durham since 1697.'
On the 7th December, Mein again informed Williamson : ' On
Robert"'on and Tuesday next there is as many of the same kind of lay elders to fill
others, 14th the Stage, and so along, till the remnant of the damned old cause be
December
1666. ferreted out of their Conventicles of retreat.' He referred to Neilson,
Alexander Robertson, the preacher," George Crauford in Cumnock,
John Lindsay in Edinburgh, John Gordon in Irongray, tried on the
1 2th December, and sentenced to death, dismemberment, and for-
feiture two days later.^ M'Kail's case was adjourned till he could
compear, on the i8th December, with Thomas Lennox, Humphry
Colquhoun, Mungo Kaip in Evandale, Ralph Shiells, collier in Ayr,
William Peddan, merchant there, John Wodrow or Wardrop,
merchant in Glasgow, Robert M'Millan, merchant in Glasgow, John
Wilson in Kilmaurs. They too were sentenced to the death of
traitors on the 22nd December. They did not conceal the manly
stand they had taken. M'Millan, Peddan, Lennox, and Lindsay
were reprieved. The rest joyfully accepted their fate.* To their
credit many gentlemen chose to be fined rather than sit on the
assize. While these horrors went on, bands of little children paraded
the streets carrying toy pikes and batons, and beating drums.'
The Testimonies emitted by all these sufferers are very affecting
and afford illustrations of piety, purity, and patriotism which are in
striking contrast with the vices of their judges. They rejoiced in
' Stark, Book of Kirkpatrick-Durham, 84 ; for Neilson's 'Testimony,' cf. Naphtali, 234-7.
- This Alexander Robertson is supposed to have been the son of Alexander Robertson,
minister of Urr, who died in 1639. The 'Testimonies' of Robertson, Crauford, Wodrow,
Shiells, and WiUon appear in Nap/ttali, 228, 237, 247, 254, 259. ' Jusi. Rec, i. 185-7.
♦ Ibiii., 187 ; Wodrow, ii. 52. ' Mein to Williamson : State Papers, 106, 348.
Executions
on 22nd
December.
ROTHES AND THE RISING OF RULLION GREEN 207
becoming witnesses and martyrs for Christ, Reformation, ' in the Testimonies
* ^ .of the Pentland
power and sweetness thereof,' and the Covenants. There is no trace martyrs.
of bitterness in their farewells in which they forgave their persecutors.
All these champions of the Covenant had the assurance of Neilson :
' If I had many Worlds, I would lay them all down, as now I do my
life for Christ and His Cause.'' None would purchase his life by
abjuring the Covenants.
'The Last Speech and Testimony of Mr. Hew M'Kaile,' etc., is m 'Kail's
a dying message worthy of the first martyrs, a bold manifesto full of ^^ """"v
the spirit of Luther and Knox.'- His faith was exultant. He blessed
God because He had ' keeped my soul free from all amazement and
fear of death.' His final interview with his father was touching. ' I
called thee a grood olive tree of fair fruits, and now a storm hath
destroyed the tree, and his fruits and branches ; I have sinned : thou
poor sheep, what hast thou done ? ' said the old father in tears. The
penitent youth replied, ' Through coming short of keeping the Fifth
Commandment ' ; and ' God's controversy with him was for over-
valuing his children, especially himself.' This belief in the intimate
care of God made Hew happy even to facetiousness. Though
suffering, he exclaimed : ' Oh, the fear of my neck makes me forget
my leg ! ' The night before the execution, he cheered his fellow-
prisoners by saying merrily : ' Eat to the full, and cherish your bodies,
that we may all be a fat Christmas Pie to the Prelates.' ' His cousin.
Dr. Matthew M'Kail, brought the influence of the Douglases to
bear on Sharp and Burnet, but these callous Fathers in God did not
interpose. A manuscript, probably written by the Doctor, records
that 'there came a letter from the King discharging the execution of
moe : but the Bishop of St. Andrews kept it up till Mr. Hew was
executed : and then no moe were pannelled for that business.' Gilbert
Burnet asserts that Archbishop Burnet brought and then withheld
the letter. Row also chronicles this atrocity.'
As the fair youth, crippled and broken, dragged his way down
' Naphtali, 236. - Ibid., 239. ■■'• Ibid., ' A True Relation,' etc., 278.
' M'Crie, Veitch, 35 note ; Row, Blair, 506 ; Burnet, i. 425 ; Defoe, 217.
208
THE COVENANTERS
Scene at
M 'Kail's
execution,
22nd Decem-
ber 1666.
Dr. Malthev
M 'Kail's
tlevotion.
High Street to the gallows, crowds viewed the scene in tears. He
was now ecstatic. Scanningf that bewilderingr sea of solemn faces he
gladly said : ' So is there a greater and more solemn preparation in
heaven to carry iny soul to Christ's bosom.' He boldly read his
memorable Testimony, which is a singularly beautiful confession of
fidelity and devotion.^ He next confirmed his resolution by singing
the 31st Psalm : —
' In Thee, O Lord, I put my trust.
Shamed let me never be.'
As he mounted the ladder he cried out : ' I care no more to go
up this ladder, and over it, than if I were going home to my father's
house,' and as he touched every rung, he said : ' Every step is a degree
nearer heaven.' Coolly turning round, he sat on a spar in order to
address the onlookers, assuring them that their judges were to be
exonerated, and their blood laid at the prelates' door. He was ready
to embrace the rope for the Cause of God and of the Covenants —
once the glory of the land. Opening his pocket Bible he read
encouragement from the last chapter. With the napkin over his
eyes he fancied he saw angels coming to bear his soul away, and,
in a marvellous voice, referred to by Burnet, he burst into a tender
rhapsody of ' Farewells ' to his kindred, and ' VVelcomings ' to God,
' sweet Jesus Christ,' death, eternal life, and glory. The crowd
wailed. Scotland had ' tint a byous lad ' — an extraordinary youth.
The compassionate Matthew, who slept with Hew in prison the
night before, now stood beneath the beam, watching for the critical
moment, to hang on to the dangling legs and give his cousin easy death.
He had already arranged with the hangman, Dunmore, for Hew's
black hair-cloth coat, which he wore for mourning as long as it held
together, and for his unmutilated body, which was first borne into the
Magdalene Chapel in a coffin ; then being dressed, a usage forbidden
to felons, it was accompanied by many and laid in Greyfriars' Church-
yard, 'near the east dyke, a little above the stair, at the entry.'"
' Naphtali. 239.
2 Wodrow, ii. ,S ; Naphtali, 283; M'Crie, Veitch, 35 note. Visible mourning — dress,
coffins, etc., being tokens of sympathy — was prohibited afterwards.
ROTHES AND THE RISING OF RULLION GREEN 209
Equally bold was Colquhoun, who, asking for a fellow victim's Gallant ending
^ -^ ^ , , • 1 L o • of Colquhoun,
Bible, laid it on his wounded arm and read out with rapture the bcrip- 22nd Decem-
tural grounds for his fearless faith and felicity.^ ' I die not a fool,' he ''"•
testified ; ' it is better for me to suffer the worst of deaths, then to
preserve my life by breaking the Oaths of God.'" Rothes might
describe these heroes as ' damd incorrigeable phanaticks,' and 'damd
fules' cursed with 'unparalleled obdurdness,' whom he would ex-
tinguish,— ' not that I am wearie of causing hang such rebellious
traitors.'^ The bravery of pious peasantry, as inspirational as their
eloquence was pentecostal, is best explained by the confession of
M'Kail, that they had 'got a clear ray of the Majesty of the Lord.'
The Justiciary Commission, consisting of Linlithgow, Wigtown, The justices
.in Glasgow.
Montgomery (eighth Eglinton), and Mungo Murray, held a court in
Glasgow on 17th December, and sent to the gallows, two days after-
wards, Robert Buntein in Fenwick, John Hart in West Quarter,
Glassford, Robert Scott in Shavock, Dalserf, and Matthew Paton,
shoemaker. New Milns. When the condemned men attempted to
address the spectators from the scaffold, the soldiers silenced them
with drums. That was an old trick of Turner — and Rothes and
Turner spent a merry Yule together in Glasgow.*
Similar tragedies occurred at Ayr, where a court presided over Judicial
by Kellie, Drummond, Crichton, sheriff of Nithsdale, and Hatton ^^^ '" '"
(afterwards Lauderdale), on the 24th December, sentenced John
Grier in Four Merkland, John Graham in Midtoun of Old Crachan,^
James Smith in Old Crachan, Alexander MacCulloch in Carsphairn,
James MacMillan in Marduchat, George MacCartney in Blairkennie,
John Short in Dairy, James Blackwood in Fenwick, William Welsh
in Kirkpatrick, John M'Coull in Carsphairn, Cornelius Anderson,
tailor in Ayr, and James Muirhead in Irongray, to be forfeited and
hanged, and their heads and right hands exposed at Ayr, on the 27th
December, excepting two, Grier and Welsh, who were to die, be
' Wodrow, ii. 58. - 'Testimony' in Naphtali, 257. ^ Laud. Pap., i. 254.
■' Just. Rec, i. 18S ; Row, Blai>\ 506 ; Tombstone, Glasgow Cathedral : Martyr Graves, 138.
^ Clachan (?) of Dairy, Kirkcudbrightshire ; Book of Adjournal, 24th December.
VOL. II, 2 D
2IO
THE COVENANTERS
Sutherland,
the Christian
hangman.
lopped, and be exhibited at Dumfries Market Cross on 2nd January.^
The Ayr hangman ran away, and his neighbour in Irvine refused to
act. In their dilemma the authorities with terrors, bribe of life, and
intoxicants, induced the defective Cornelius to hang his brethren, two
of whom were removed to Irvine and died joyfully there.^
The case of this Irvine hangman, William Sutherland, is unique.
Sutherland tells his own soul's story.^ He was a Strathnaver High-
lander, illiterate, yet anxious to learn, who left cattle-herding and
came to Paisley, where he eked out life by sweeping chimneys and
hanging an odd witch. Paisley then slighted their obliging ' Dougal
Cratur,' who, discovering that a more liberal spirit prevailed in Irvine,
went thither and offered to hang all and sundry so long as the
survivors kindly aided him in learning to read the Bible. In that
Lollard atmosphere the rude Celt learned to love the Scriptures, to
hate bishops, and to contract a moral sensibility which made him
sometimes scruple at his killing work^ — a virtue which Turner and
Claverhouse never knew. Fearing to be needed in Ayr, he con-
templated flight, but first went to church to hear a sermon. His
Bible opened at the text, ' Ye have not yet resisted unto blood,
striving against sin,' and he interpreted the oracle in favour of the
Covenanters. When the Provost called him out of church to go to
Ayr, the hangman refused and was clapped in jail, whence a guard
removed him to that ' auld toun.' Before setting out he sought
strength in a 'mutchkin of ale.' In the Tolbooth of Ayr, White, a
curate, plied him with Jewish precedents for killings, which Suther-
land nullified by gospel texts- — their dispute affording sport to the
guardsmen. White, beaten, gave in, and believed the devil to be in
the hangman. The judges next took him in hand, and found him
' Just. Rec, i. 189 ; Laud. Pap., i. 266. The tombstone in Ayr churchyard has MacMillan
for MacCulloch : Martyr Graves, 310; similarly Patrick Walker, 5?x Saints, i. 319. In a
very inaccurate doggerel epitaph on the back of the Ayr tombstone, 'Pontius M'Adam' is
made the judge, and thumbkins are mentioned out of time. Two fine table stones in Dumfries
churchyard keep green the memory of Williatii (sic) Grierson and William Welsh, ' whose
head once fixd up on the Bridge port stood': Martyr Graves, 471, 472. Cf Photograph.
'■' Cornelius perished a wretched outcast in Ireland : Wodrow, ii. 53-4 ; Six Saints, i. 318.
2 Wodrow, ii. 54 note ; Naphtali, 162.
ROTHES AND THE RISING OF RULLION GREEN 211
obdurate in his refusal to execute. Dalyell, Drummond, and others
tried the Muscovite method, threatening him with the boots, to which
the waggish prisoner invited them to add the spurs too, with boiUng
lead, hanging, shooting, a barrel full of spikes, but it was to no
purpose ; Sutherland would neither be coerced nor persuaded to
butcher his fellow-Christians, and was liberated.^
It was not till the 15th August that the trial of the Pentland Trial of
fugitives began under Atholl, when fifty-six rebels were called and
did not compear.^ In their absence the trial proceeded, and after an
assize was sworn. Sir William Ballantine being one of them, and
Turner and Lawrie of Blackwood gave evidence, all the accused were
condemned as traitors to forfeiture and death, and were sentenced
and denounced accordingly.
Sharp had long been riding for a fall. He crushed the little war Sharp an
without feeling appeased. His communication to the Government '"^"j^^j"^^""
saying Scotland was orderly required some explanation, after the
King read another letter to a courtier wherein the Primate said, ' All
was wrong ; no man was faithful to the King, they were all sold.' ^
Tweeddale and the Treasurer- Depute, Bellenden, kept Lauderdale
informed of the pitiless violence of the party for annihilation, and
of the hatred borne towards Sharp and his abettors, the clergy being
looked on as wolves. Lauderdale now appears with feline cunning-
sporting with his victim, Sharp. Since 1665 Bellenden had been
warning Lauderdale of Sharp's hidden malignity, and now that
victory had made the Primate insufferable, the terrified Bellenden,
in bad French, implored the Secretary to rid Scotland of its miser-
able incubus.* Politic Lauderdale bided his time.
The unpreparedness of the Government to oppose a local rising,
or Dutch landing-parties, necessitated a meeting of the Estates, on
' Hatton, in a letter to Sharp, 6th May 1675, refers to .Sutherland, the hangman, con-
cerning whom Ross spoke to the Privy Council ; Miscell. Scot. Hist. Soc, 288 (Edin., 1S93).
'" For process and names, ct. Just. Rec, i. 230; VVodrow, li. 66. ^ Kirkton, 255.
* Add. MSS. 23123, fol. 212 ; 23125, fol. 167, 175 : 'Pour I'amour de Dieu livre nous de
cet maheureus et mal inlentione person . . . car Ic fardau d'un prester et trop pisant pour
niais epoles'; Laud. J'up., i. 240, 259.
212
THE COVENANTERS
Meeting of
Parliament,
1667.
Licence to
spoil.
Atrocities of
Dalyell and
Drummond.
9th January, to vote ample supplies to the King.^ By the King's
instructions, Hamilton, instead of Sharp, was made president, and to
emphasise this rebuff, Rothes had the royal mandate to enjoin the
Primate to confine himself to his own diocese. It gave Rothes
pleasure to inform Lauderdale that Sharp was ' strangely cast down,
yeay, lower than the dust.'" An abject melancholy brought the
proud priest to death's door. He was not able to carry that ' sanctified
cross' which, ten years before, he adjured Lauderdale in the Tower
to bear for 'conscience, country, and Christ's church in it,' thereby
testifying to ' that established {then Pj'esbyterimi\ doctrine and dis-
cipline purchased at no small cost.' Sharp was fully paying up in
shame, tears, and blood for his treachery. Gossip ran that he was
to be deposed. Lauderdale, however, knew how to make him
obedient to whip, and still had a use for the Primate who might
keep the clergy 'from flying out to impertinencies.'^
Two proclamations (25th March) calling up the personal weapons
and horses of non-jurors and non-churchgoers, opened new doors to
the spoilers. Another proclamation (13th June) rendered heritors
and parishioners liable for fines and compensation exigible for assaults
on, or affronts to, the well-affected clergy. This was a new licence
to rob. These orders were no dead letters in face of the King's
threat that the leniency of judges would not be brooked. Papists,
however, were overlooked.^
After the battle of RuUion Green, the troops under Dalyell and
Drummond marched to Ayrshire. Naphtali chronicles the atrocities
which followed.^ Dalyell, having tasted blood, 'acted the Muscovite
too grossly,' and thus expressed his one idea regarding the 'mad
phanaticks,' — ' ther was noe mor to be doune bot tak them out and
hang them.'** Archbishop Burnet also informed Sheldon that, if
Dalyell's policy of extermination had been followed, ' I am confident
this kingdome had by this tyme (9th August 1667) been in a very
' Act. Pari. Scot., vii. 540.
' Add. MSS. 23127, fol. 191.
* Pages 169-75.
- Laud. Pap., i. 269, 270, 285.
♦ Wodrow, ii. 83, 84, 86, 87.
" LmuJ. Pap., ii. 11.
ROTHES AND THE RISING OF RULLION GREEN 213
happy and quiet condition.' ' After the fight, Dalyell's red hand
wrote to Lauderdale : ' This Much I dar saye that fanatik parte vil
never be redemit hot vit Much moir atemps then this And I beseik
your Loirdship not to expek anay good from anay favors tham fr I
am Confedent thay vil all Join vit the Couenant or anay hououer to
overturn Episkopase."" This illiterate demon set his uniformed
bandits a cruel example. When ordinary tortures did not make
ingenuous confessors, Dalyell threatened to kill, spit, roast, or burn
alive his prisoners. Other victims, stripped half-naked, were crammed
into filthy jails wherein they could only stand up. He caused David The shooting
Finlay in Newmills to be taken and examined as to his business in pinjay.
Lanark, on that day on which the rebels visited it ; and because he
could not name these strangers, he ordered a party to shoot him at
the gallows-foot. The simple man, thinking that the goat-like monster
was jesting, prevailed on the lieutenant to return and ask Dalyell for
a respite till morning. Dalyell, in a rage, threatened the officer,
declaring that ' he would teach him to obey his orders precisely.'
The lieutenant accordingly ordered the soldiers to shoot and strip
this unoffending man.
The revolting story reached Sir Robert Moray, who informed sir Robert
Lauderdale that Naphtali ' tells exactly the whole story as I have cJ^'oborates
heard it related.'^ In all likelihood another murder is referred to \iy Napiuaii.
Burnet in this connection, thus, ' for he was then drunk, when he
ordered one to be hanged, because he would not tell where his father
was, for whom he was in search.'^ Wodrow instances the brutality
of Mungo Murray, who hanged to a tree, tied by the thumbs, two
peasants who gave shelter to two insurgents. They would have
perished had not two merciful soldiers cut them down.^ Fines came
in ; churches began to fill with nervous hearers, as a result of
Dalyell's practical gospel.
In Nithsdale and Galloway, Turner and Ballantine^ with their
' Laud. Pap., ii., App., Letter xxxii. - Add. MSS. 28747, fo'- 8.
' Laud. Pap., ii. 88, loth December 1667 ; Naphtali, 170, 171 ; Wodrow, ii. 63.
* Hist., i. 426. ° Wodrow, ii. 64. ^ Or Bannatyne.
214 THE COVENANTERS
Villainies of redcoats devoured the country with the pitilessness of locusts. The
almost incredible indictment in Naphtali — stabbing, stripping, burglary,
rape, torture by match, imprisoning, spoiling the innocent — is fully
corroborated now.^
Wodrow gives a concrete example of the villainy of Ballantine,
who suggested immorality to the wife of the landlord of an alehouse
in Balmaghie in his very presence. For resisting the assault, Ballan-
tine struck the host dead. A Royalist gentleman interposed and seized
Ballantine, who called in his men, and had the gentleman thrown
down to lie all night roped like a beast, till, on Sabbath morning,
friends arrived and became surety for the sufferer. After a debauch
the soldiers fell on plundering the house, and, in sheer devilry, ran
off the drink they could not consume.^
If Government agents could thus be procured publicly to commit
atrocities, more like the acts of heathen than of Scots, what share of
the reported crimes of the day is to be apportioned to the unbridled
scum of the population, who professed no morality ? The Books
of Adjournal testify how rife certain kinds of crime were.' Up till
now, in defence or retaliation, the Covenanters had not resented their
treatment much further than in entering the manses of Borgue, Glen-
cairn, Dunscore, Irongray, Closeburn, and other places, probably
more to terrify informers than to wreak vengeance — loot being out of
The insurgents the question. The accusation is contemporary that the soldiers
not criminals, masqueraded as Whigs in order to plunder ; and there is no proof
that the insurgents were criminals.^ Dalyell, with blood in his
nostrils, was continually scenting incipient rebellion and writing to
London creating a scare. Incidents were exaggerated.^ Even
Drummond and Burnet were sent to court to 'blow that coal,' and
Dalyell also clamoured to go to secure forfeitures.
' Page 174 ; Laud. Pap.., ii. 25, 26, 62, 82, 83. 2 Wodrow, ii. 65.
■' Just. Rec, i. 2 passim ; also the unpublished Minutes. * Wodrow, ii. 18.
•'■ Tweeddale reports that some rebels had sorely beat ' if not kild one old man. Black,
minister of Closeburn.' He was aged forty-nine, and lived till 1684 : Laud. Pap., ii. 19.
Black refused the Test in 1681, but, after petitioning the Council, and taking it, was
reponed in 1682.
ROTHES AND THE RISING OF RULLION GREEN 215
Now that Charles 11. was promoting toleration in England, Lauderdale's
J J , investigations.
and Clarendon, its opponent, was in consequence to be 'decourted,
Lauderdale, influenced by the peace-loving antagonists of the military
ring, had no better policy than the dispatch, in June 1667, of his trusty
under-secretary, Sir Robert Moray, to discover the true trend of
affairs in the north, and to see ' how the bowles roll.'
Moray, now getting old, was one of the most reputable men of his
age. By family a Perthshire gentleman, a veteran colonel of the
continental wars, a staunch friend of the two Charleses, a former
Senator of Justice and Privy Councillor, a distinguished naturalist,
physicist, astronomer, and mathematician, a wise diplomatist, who
preferred study to politics, and a spring on his violin to the clangour
of camps, Moray was a man whose kindliness of nature ever made
him an advocate for clemency and moderation.^
This ' cunning and dexterous man,' as Clarendon so aptly desig- Sir Robert
nated Moray, at once discovered the source of the troubles. The gth July 1667.'
cabal of booted apostles aimed at being permanent governors battening
on legal loot. Official life was rotten, and smelled of liquor and dirt.
' Now let me tell you,' he reported, ' that all any body can tell you of
the corrupt state of things and persons here can as little make you
imagine it as it is, as one who never saw the ruins of London can
comprehend it by any description any body can make of it."" He
enlarged on his experiences to this effect — the rumour regarding ' mad
phanaticks ' about to rebel were false ' starrlight stories ' ; officers were
defrauding their men of their pay ; Hamilton, Dalyell, and others
were so mean, on the one hand, as to compound with rebels for a few^
merks 'and one for a stick,' while, on the other, they illegally exacted
£1700 from Loudoun's tenantry ; Ballantine was a notorious spoiler,
and Steel, minister of Kells, had informed him that Turner, who
beggared his parish so that the parishioners were unable to pay his
stipend, 'was a saint to Balantine,'^ the treasury was a den of
' Scot. Rev., V. 22. - Laud. Pap., ii. 20, 9th July 1667.
^ This was in keeping with a complaint of the papist Harries to Tweeddale : Laud. Pap.,
ii. 24.
2i6 THE COVENANTERS
robbers ; his country sorely needed an autocrat to suppress its greedy
oppressors.'
TheCovenan- Thus the official reporter outrivalled the description of the
con-oborated"^ miseries of Scotland, then recently published in an anonymous work
entitled ' Naphtali, or the Wrestlings of the Church of Scotland for the
Kingdom of Chi-ist, etc. . . . 1667.' Moray also referred to this book
as ' all that a toung set on fire by hell can say of things and persons
hereaway.'- Moray noted the veering round to Lauderdale of the
battered weathercock, Sharp, who was now hinting that Rothes and
Dalyell had arranged the rebellion, discarding these bloodstained
buttresses of the Church, praying for reconciliation with the Secretary,
wishing the abolition of the militia, standing for ' lenity and gentle-
ness at present.' Moray naively advised his chief ' to make use of a
knave as well as another,' for ' certainly you are not to learn to know
him — Sharp.' How the two diplomatists must have chuckled when
they saw bishops and clergy following that ' tinkling cymbal ' of a
bellwether, as Moray wrote : ' What a silly company of people they
are, and how useful one of them is to manage the rest ! '^ Lauderdale
brought Sharp to his reward and became reconciled, saying he wished
' fair play in time to come,' as he stood strong for crown and crozier.''
Sharp swallowed the bait. It was in the drama, concocted by Moray
and staged by Lauderdale, that the Sovereign should again honour
The resurrec- the Primate. The King sent a commendatory letter to Sharp, which
tion of Sharp, j^^jg }^jj„ g^ j^^^j ^N\\}s\ joy that he replied to Lauderdale that he was
'wholly his'; and that 'His Majesties hand with the diamond seal
was to me as a resurrection from the dead.''' Into that polluted hand
the stronger Sheldon once refused to put the communion cup.'' But
the cowed whelp licks the hand that feeds and whips it.
The conciliatory policy inspired by Moray was soon announced,
and with a change of managers, the reduction of Rothes to the
' Moray's Letters, Laud. Pap., ii. 13, 14, 20, 34, 39, 62,65, 68, 70.
2 Ql.postca, pp. 217, 218, and note i : Land. Pap., ii. 88.
' Moray to Lauderdale, 20th September : Laud. Pap., ii. 71, 86, 87. ■* Ibid., ii. 40, 41.
' Sliarp to Lauderdale, 1 8th January 1668 : Add. MSS. 23128, fol. 273.
° Burnet, i. 313 note.
ROTHES AND THE RISING OF RULLION GREEN 217
Chancellorship, the disbanding of all but a few regulars — peace with Conciliation
Holland having been made — it was intended to return the sword to Moray.
its scabbard. Dalyell found his list of forfeitures useless, and Burnet
felt as if ' the Gospell was banished out of his diocey that day.' ^
Moray's proposal that all who took a bond of peace — a few
undesirables excepted — should receive pardon and indemnity, was
approved by Charles, and opposed by the blood-and-booty cabal,
because it killed their paying trade. The proclamation of this act of
grace breathed a kindly spirit towards those obliging themselves not
to rise in arms without authority, and producing a cautioner before
New Year's Day. The three classes excepted were: (i) forty lay
and sixteen clerical insurgents — Wallace, MacLellan, and other west-
landmen ; (2) the forfeited already scheduled ; and (3) molesters of
the settled incumbents."
To render the Act effective, heritors were enjoined to summon all Moray's bond
on their lands to subscribe the bond, and to dispossess them should" ^^"'
they refuse. The hair-splitting Scots, with tender consciences, read
more into this surety of lawburrows than Moray intended, as if it
bound them to the past and future policy of the Crown. Others —
Campbell, Dunlop, Montgomery, etc. — welcomed it and got release
from prison. Of those aimed at by the Act two hundred and eighteen
came to terms, and three hundred, mostly ' mean persons,' remained
obdurate. Many were sceptical of the royal clemency and refused to
surrender, and others took advantage of it by demanding an inquiry
into the grievances at the bottom of the Rising. There was no little
irony in the circumstance that on the first anniversary of Rullion
Green, the Council appointed a Committee to report on the excesses
of the troops under Turner in Galloway, and on the same day
Clarendon was preparing to flee into exile. The country rang with
the terrible charges of Naphtali, which Sharp said he expected to The effect of
'debauch the people to a Munster tragedy ' ; but neither the frequent ''^'''"•
banning and burning of the book, nor the answer by Bishop Honyman,
' Laud. I'ap., ii. 68 ; Kirkton, 269.
- Reg. Sec. Cone, Acta, 726-34, 9th October 1667 ; Wodrow, ii. 92, 93, 94.
VOL. II. 2 E
2l8
THE COVENANTERS
The CoHnci
and the
mililary
scandals.
Turner dis-
charged.
Ballantine
banished,
i66S.
diminished the sensation it produced. Mackenzie attributed the
murderous intentions of James Mitchell to the principles set forth
in Nap hi all}
The Privy Council met on 20th February to receive the report
on the Turner scandals, and, as was to be expected from undeniable
facts, and from the foregone conclusion that some scapegoats should
be turned adrift with the crimes of greater offenders on their heads,
the Committee detailed under twenty-one heads the offences com-
plained of, and concluded that ' every one of the foregoing articles is
made out by information upon oath.'" Turner's defence was that he
had only lifted ^30,000 Scots, and had always mitigated the severity
authorised. The Council sent the report to the King, who ordered
Turner to be discharged from the service. Dreading the fate of
becoming ' ane absolute beggar,' this pitiless oppressor of the innocent
wrote a whining letter to Lauderdale, imploring him to intercede with
the King to save him from the ' ruine of a poor gentleman.'^ It is to
the credit of his cruel abettor. Archbishop Burnet, that the prelate
wrote to Secretary Williamson pleading for this ' very honest gentle-
man,' and minimising his offences on the ground : ' I have heard him
recommended for the same acts for which he is now condemned : and
soldiers think they do not offend when they obey their superior
officers' orders."' The Council afterwards took a more lenient view
of Turner's practices/ A similar investigation into the ledgers of,
and into the ruffianism alleged against, Ballantine also justified the
authorities in sending that gory-handed Gentleman of the Bed-
chamber to the pestilential Tolbooth, fining him in ^200 sterling, and
banishing him from Scotland." That reckless hackster took to arms
abroad, and met a soldier's death at the siege of Graves.^
' Memoirs, 326 ; Aldis, fj'sf, 1852, A Su>~i'ey . . . of Naphtali, etc., pt. i. 1668 ; pt. ii. 1669 ;
cf. Stewart's answer \x\ Jus Populi, etc., 1669 ; Wodiow, ii. 225 ; ill. 229 note ; iv. 444.
- Reg. Sec. Cone, Ada, 36, 20th February 1668.
^ 1 2th March : Laing MSS., iv. Div. i. 137.
•• Dodds, Fifty Years, 192, citing Letter in State Pap. Ofllce. •' Reg. Sec. Cone.., Ada, 62.
" loth April : Laud. Pap., ii. 25, 26, 62, 83, 100, 1 16 ; Just. Rec, i. 52 ; cf. Index.
' For Mr. Andrew Lang's futile attempt to turn Turner into a saint, see his paper, ' A
Christian under the Covenant,' in Blackwood's Magazine, clxxiv., July 1903.
ROTHES AND THE RISING OF RULLION GREEN 219
With these bandits degraded and dismissed, and the Dalyell party Failure of
temporarily checked, the executive made efforts, in the Spring of °'^^^^ '''•
166S, to stop conventicling, and to induce subscription of the bond of
peace. The exiles in Holland wrote reviling the ' black bond ' and
recommending rejection of it. Some weak-kneed insurgents, such as
Robert Cannon, younger of Mardrogat, in Galloway, who afterwards
turned informer, gave in, but many preferred banishment to Virginia
to defection. A warrant was issued in May to seize eighty notorious
refusers of the Indemnity, among whom were some who evaded
capture and afterwards became martyrs.' Conventicling spread even
in Edinburgh, and the clergy were more despised than ever." Local
garrisons were established, and slave-ships transported irreconcil-
ables to Virginia and Tangier, all with no perceptible effect.
One of those sentenced to sail for Tangier was Michael Bruce, Michael Bruce.
from Killinchy in Ireland, a great-grandson of the famous Robert,
deposed for nonconformity, and seized while conventicling in Airth,
not without a bloody bout in which soldiers and he were wounded.
Bruce founded his defence on the authority of Scripture. They sent
him to a higher authority meantime — the King, who, being influenced
by courtiers, asked that Bruce should be sent to London, whence he
transferred him to his work in Ireland. At the Revolution, Bruce
was settled in Anwoth.*
Among the oppressed at this time was Thomas Hog of Kiltearn, Hog of
who, taken from tolbooth to tolbooth, buffeted between the Bass and
the Castle Rock, and by the Council designated 'a noted keeper of
conventicles,' appears to have borne the malignity of Sharp in an
especial degree. In a singular way Sharp acknowledged the in-
vincible old Protester's talents and influence by advising the Council
to immure him in a cell worse than that which had ruined his health ;
while he asserted, ' that the prisoner did, and was in a capacity
to do, more hurt to their interests, sitting in his elbow chair, than
' Wodrow, ii. loS, 109 note.
- Tueeddale to Lauderdale : Laud. Pap., ii. 113.
' Row, Blair, 520, 521.
220 THE COVENANTERS
twenty others could do by travellino; from this land to the other . . .
and ... if there were any place in the prison worse than another, he
should be put there.' To this 'closest prison' Hog was remanded,
and there, to his own amazement, recovered health, for which he
ironically blessed ' good Doctor ' Sharp !
' Memoirs of Mrs. William Vcitch, Mr. Thomas Hog of Kiltcarn, etc., 104 (Edin., 1846).
Graves of Peiitland Martyrs in St. Michael's
Churchyard, Dumfries
Headstone of four Martyrs, in the
Cliurchyard, Hamilton
.'Vi?':;"!!nr;
LivtOr :,
"5 niirl U'^'^v*' ^f.
l';> fmiii- .."hlth vC- (he V<"iJ'''' ■■ •
,„)< nKjur-/l ih.-uoli lif« ifK,^ ;l..fl ,
', ,1 ..,(1, nunttans cilul o(ha Of' .,
l^7i,r iiillict '.lid niftly <o flfcifli P^'f)"/'",;
■• ! ' ,Sy fifdr''/i'(>"< ,'i"iv '«■/ ^i" ir:i""''.
i^X'dVli IriillV'.! V(rix jml'tl liyfdinoil' CtiilhlV<>-
>Aiii3 (ill rilciin If. Mnpcr nnm"irK't lilnod
"They ditl rndiivr (dr wrtilli of, c\
nrooc fu
(t-ndis nud
DlOOfJ y ^
CllCIMItS^k
niitirtcs^f .
,,....' ycl ihc'/'rc Unj/c v/lio/ri>ni/licbiroiilS(<iiM^
i^Alid iin«' (riumpdin glory >'*/i(li the LAMn ^j
.lliftcli t'1inl(icr<: di. ollirr,'; nolJp ni.invrcjlprl
;IF.<;us cMat.sTilir 1110/! pAt) 0/ (ficirr,M
'^l ^pi.i iaji)^?' 'ifYcOfe^' Annnvsiffl
Original Monument erected to the Martyrs
Greyfriars Churchyard, lulinburgh
/
iJ3 J y-'^
',:KUp<^rii\>Mj^^f.^ HA'
,7ANDR£V^' PlTlJU-OCHr w^;
\f;.)iU,i,^ma«1ilJC0D!lJrA<il
m. ifiir ;»W((/bAviD Hackstoi
Martyrs' M^
Cupar (File)
'I'lie Grassniarkct, Edinburgh
IHE GRASSMARKET, EDINBURGH. AND MONUMENTS OF MARTVR.S
SCHEMES OF LEIGHTON AND LAUDERDALE 221
CHAPTER XXIV
THE SCHEMES OF ANGELIC LEIGHTON AND IRON-HANDED LAUDERDALE
Where was the angelic Leighton all this time when the vice-gerent of Robert
Christ acted Nero, when ministers of justice crushed guilty and inno- visionary
cent Indifferently, when feminine virtue was not safe from unbridled
cavaliers, and clergy were not fit company for squeamish Turner ? '
What Robert Baillie said of Leighton in 1658 was true of him to the
end : ' Mr. Lichtoun does not [nought] to count of, but looks about
him in his chamber.' - The Episcopal ministers of 1666 reckoned this
their golden age, and hailed the cavaliers as a divine legion of
protectors. ' By the banks of Allan Water ' Leighton dwelt apart,
wishing the churchyard would open for him a door to heaven.
He moped over his own sins and the lack of virtue in others. The
Register of his Synod ' proves that he strove to elevate the clergy of
his ' precincts,' to inculcate domestic purity, and to promote religion
of a public and liturgical kind especially ; but there came not from
him a Christian's proper reply to Naphtali, in protests against the
brutalities of his peers and his coadjutors in Parliament and Council,
nor even in any appeals for misguided fanatics and inhumanly treated
innocents.* His was the conciliatory spirit of a disembodied soul,
and the chilling purity of a corpse. Gilbert Burnet records that he
had to be prevailed upon to go to court to expose the violence of the
executive in planting religion which he said he did not approve of.*
Yet he was one of the eleven Scots bishops who met on i6th Sep-
' Burnet, i. 379, 426. » Letters, iii. 365.
' Wilson, Register of Synod of Duniblane, q.v.
' E.g. Agnes Anderson and Hadden, starving prisoners, untried, even unaccused,
petition for liberty, and are given to first skipper going to Barbadoes or Virginia : Reg.
Sec. Cone, Acta, 667, ult. February 1667. » Burnet, i. 3S2.
222
THE COVENANTERS
The ' Accomo-
dation.'
Leighlon's
betrayal of
' The Cause.'
tember and subscribed a subservient letter to Lauderdale, signifying
their concurrence in the new policy for remedying the evils in the
Church.' Moray, the intriguer, and the diamond seal of Charles, also
exalted Leighton into the peaceful heaven of resurrected Sharp. All
were crying peace, save Archbishop Burnet and the swordsmen.
Leighton, however, was not so much a genuine champion of
toleration as a juggler with concessions tending to uniformity, who
maintained chimerical views, especially regarding the unimportance of
distinctive Church principles.
Leighton, in a millennial vision, conceived a policy which was
designated ' The Accommodation.' It proposed that the bishop, or
'constant moderator,' should preside in church courts, but have no
negative vote ; a dissentient presbyter on joining a ' precinct ' (his
name for a presbytery, or meeting of clergy under a bishop) might
acknowledge the bishop under protest ; a candidate for ordination
might accept the bishop as the chairman of the presbyters ; bishops
were to submit themselves to the Synod for censure or approval
every third year." Of alternative schemes of conciliation — Kin-
cardine's, imposing by law mutual terms of concession ; and Tweed-
dale's, allowing field- preachers to minister in selected parishes—
Leighton favoured the former. Conventicling was not in harmony
with his veiled projects. The author of Naphtali had good founda-
tion for his bitter accusation : ' Mr. Lighton, prelat of Dumblan,
under a Jesuitical-like visard of pretended holiness, humility, and
crucifixion to the world, hath studied to seem to creep upon the
o-round, but always up the hill . . . and . . . none of them all hath
with a Kiss so betrayed the Cause, and smiten Religion under the
fifth rib, and been such an offence to the godly.' ^ Leighton was no
more clever than other schemers who had tried to busk the presbyter
so as to hide the horns of Antichrist. It proved the shrewdness of
the Covenanters that they were able to detect what Burnet, Leighton's
confidant, divulged regarding these concessions: 'He [Leighton]
1 Laud. Pap., ii. 59.
3 Naphtali, 301.
'■' Burnet, i. 497 ; Butler, Life of Leighton, 403, 422.
SCHEMES OF LEIGHTON AND LAUDERDALE 223
thought it would be easy afterwards to recover what seemed necessary
to be yielded at present' '
The strain of the times was too much for the ill-nourished mind James
of James Mitchell, 'a stickit minister,' then in his prime. A poor '. ^Jl^ Jj ~
student from the Lothians, he graduated at Edinburgh ; and doubt- minister.'
less the spare diet of a private tutor and chaplain made him a 'lean,
hollow-cheeked man of a truculent countenance.'- Robert Blair,
minister of Edinburgh, confidently recommended this 'honest young
man,' in 1 661, as fit to be a teacher or precentor.^ He subscribed
both Covenants when demanded by Principal Leighton, but, unlike
the Principal, kept them. Enemies accused him of dealings with the
bestial wizard, Weir. With Alexander Henderson he held that the
bishops were the makers of the nation's woes. Believing Sharp to
be the instigator of all the sufferings of the time, he imagined he had
a call to remove him."* He joined the insurgents, and was sent to
Edinburgh to interview Stirling, the author of Naphtali, and Fergus-
son of Caitloch. Thereafter he skulked about, under the name of
James Small, armed with two loaded Scots pistols.'' Sharp's mansion
was on the High Street of Edinburgh, between the Netherbow and
Blackfriars Wynd. On Saturday afternoon, iith July, Mitchell,
lurking on the north side of the High Street, saw Sharp, followed by
Honyman, Bishop of Orkney, entering the Primate's coach. Mitchell Mitchell shoots
fired through the window, but, being 'ane ill gunner,' missed Sharp, mh^uTy 1668.
and shattered Honyman's wrist resting on the door of the carriage.
Clearing a way with the second pistol, Mitchell dived down the
Wynd, up Cowgate, into Fergusson's house in Stevenlaw's Close,
where he removed his disguise before descending to the street to
join in the hue and cry, from which he .sought retirement, it is said,
in the very Tolbooth. The cry 'A man killed,' was soon hushed
by the report, ' 'Twas only a bishop.' Mitchell was not suspected,
and escaped. Sharp, however, got a glimpse of that mummified
' Hist., i. 499. "- Ravillac Redivivus, ii.
3 Woeiro-^ MSS., xxix. 4to, 94. * Laing MSS., Papers left by Mitchell, 269.
* Laud. I'ap., ii. 116, • Others said Lord Oxfnford's garden in Cowgate.
224 THE COVENANTERS
face beneath the odd periwig, which haunted him for years, till he
identified it again at Robert Douglas's funeral and had Mitchell
apprehended.^
Sharp scared Sharp was scared out of his wits. In a letter, dated 23rd July,
' he makes wild statements about a ' hellish design for murdering the
King about that tvme,' and a combination of Pentland rebels and
city conventiclers for rescuing the assassin; whereas Mitchell at his
trial declared that no one was privy to his design." These whinings
were flouted in official circles. Gilbert Burnet politely visited Sharp
to offer his congratulations. The Primate, assuming a pious visage,
exclaimed : ' My times are wholly in Thy hand, O thou God of my
life.' Burnet adds the cutting comment : ' This was the single
expression savouring of piety that ever fell from him in all the
conversation that passed between him and me.'"
Governmental /^g ^.^^ (q ]-,g expected, the authorities could not allow the outrage
vengeance. . ...
to go unavenged. All probable sympathisers with the cnmmal were
haled in for examination ; flying squadrons searched the wild west for
phantom rebels ; and former victims of the High Commission were
more harshly treated. For giving unsatisfactory answers regarding
her knowledge of certain suspects, Anna Kerr, relict of James Duncan,
a minister, kept in prison with her two children for months, and
sentenced to the plantations, was only saved from torture by Rothes
saying that ' it was not proper for gentlewomen to wear boots.'
Margaret Dury, relict of James Kello, a city merchant in Edinburgh,
who gave Welsh an asylum, was sentenced to banishment, as well as
to pay a fine of 5000 merks, and was kept in prison for months.*
Many churches were vacant. Disorder had to be cured, for
Lauderdale had sworn—
' I '11 conform the Church and every man,
By placing calves at Bethell and at Dan.''
• Laud. Pap., ii. 109 ; Hist. Notices, 90 ; Aild. MSS., 23245, fol. 14, 15 : Row, Bfair, 518 ;
Scott, Fasti, i. 348, gives February 1674 as date of Douglas's death.
- Laing MSS., Papers left by Mitchell ; Just. Rec, ii. 307. - Hiit., i. 502.
■* Wodrow, ii. 118; Laud. Pap., ii. 116-30, July 1668.
^ 'The New Polirie ' : Laing MSS., 89, fol. 142.
SCHEMES OF LEIGHTON AND LAUDERDALE 225
The King invited Sharp to London, to win over that pliable
courtier to the policy of toleration ; and Sharp returned to Scotland
in November, openly to promote what Burnet and he privately
detested.' His vexed soul found vent in diatribes against the
disaffected, especially those he styled ' she-zealots ' and ' Satanesses.'
At this juncture there came into prominence a brilliant young man. Advent of
Gilbert Burnet, minister of Salton, a social pusher, able to worm out ' " "™^ '
the confidences of public men, who considered himself as important
a factor in the Church as Turner imagined himself to be the Bayard
of the Army.-
Burnet, having picked the brains of Leighton, Sharp, George
Hutcheson, the Hamiltons, and the leading Whigs, wrote to
Tweeddale recommending the settlement of moderate Presbyterians
in the vacant charges. Thereupon Tweeddale prevailed on some
conciliatory ministers— Robert Douglas, Stirling, and others — to write
to him in a similar strain. The communications were passed on to
the King, who dispatched through Tweeddale an order to the Privy
Council (7th June) authorising a conditional Indulgence." The
Indulgence provided for parish ministers resuming duty in their a conditional
charges when vacant, in other parishes when presented to them by ^^^^^'^^ '^'
patrons, in consideration of being orderly, receiving collation, attend-
ing ecclesiastical courts, and receiving full emoluments ; refusers of
collation were allowed the use of manses and glebes ; all were to
attend the Presbyterian courts, and to restrict their services to their
own parishes. Other orderly outed ministers were to be paid four
hundred merks annually out of vacant parishes. Conventicles were to
be suppressed.'' This establishment of modified Presbyterianism was
the public rebuke of prelatic incompetence, and Sharp was warned
that, if the clergy and Church were not reformed, the King would
turn disciplinarian himself.'' When Sharp refused to recognise
' Burnet, //is/., i. 502 ; Laud MS S., 23130, fol. 42 ; 23 131, fol. 26.
'^ Clarke and Foxcroft, A Life of Bishop Burnet (Cambridge, 1907), q.v.
^ Burnet, Hist., i. 496, 507 ; Wodrow, ii. 130, 131 i Row, Blair, 524, 525.
'' Brown, History of the Indulgence : in Faithful Witness Bearing, 135.
' Laud. Pap., ii. 196.
VOL. II. 2 F
226 THE COVENANTERS
the reponing of an indulged minister, Tweeddale reminded him
that censures were no longer canonical, but were now Parlia-
mentary.'
Indulged Of the forty-three ministers reinstated in parish pulpits — a few being
cerg)'. those from which they were ejected by the Council during 1669-70 —
some were conspicuous pastors, such as Robert Douglas, Edinburgh,
indulged in Pencaitland ; George Hutcheson, the well-known com-
mentator, Tolbooth, Edinburgh, sent to Irvine; William Vilant,
Ferry-Port-on-Craig, transferred to Cambusnethan."''
On 3rd August, when twelve of these indulged preachers — ' The
Twelve Apostles of the Council,' or ' Council Curates,' as they were
nicknamed — compeared before the Council to get their licences, ' it
was a piece of pageantry to see them make their leg in receiving it.' '
Hutcheson, in name of the brethren, thanked the King and Council ;
and, after asserting that the preacher's warrant came from Christ, said
they would submit themselves to lawful authority in its exercise, and
prayed for a blessing on the King, who had shown ' singular modera-
Opposition of tion.' The irreconcilables, at home and abroad, vilified the Indulgence
as a bare-faced Erastian breach of the Covenant, and adjured the
people in red-hot language not to hear the intruded hirelings, and
disguised prelatists, or any without 'a cleanly call.' The field-
preachers, in apocalyptic ecstasy, summoned the conventiclers as
' angels of Michael ' to a pitched battle with the Dragon, till Christ
on His white horse should conquer the land.'' While the Crown
was thus endeavouring to mollify the people by unlocking the prison
doors for those long-incarcerated knights, Cunningham, Mure,
Maxwell, Stuart, and Chiesley, only a few parishioners, or, more
probably, independent burglars, in some places were still molesting
the curates and getting heavy fines imposed on the parishes. The
' Laud. Pap., ii. 199.
- He wrote a review of Brown's History of the Indulgence, and became Principal of the
New College, Si. Andrews. A Review and Examination, etc , 1681. Brown's History . . . and
Vindication gives names of indulged— ' By a Presbyterian. Printed in the year MDl..KXVin.'
The preface is by MacWard.
- Kincardine to Lauderdale, 3rd August 1669 : Lnud. Pap., ii. 192.
* Wodrow, ii. 154 note.
irreconcilables.
SCHEMES OF LEIGHTON AND LAUDERDALE 227
cases of Balmaclellan and Urr only implicate six men in women's
clothes.'
While to the Presbyterian the Indulgence was a licence to preach a new western
_, , . , ,»-. . 1 • 1 Ti 1 ■ .. '-^ Remonstrance.
a Gospel without a Testimony to the times, to the rrelatist it was
an illegal imposition nullifying the statutes establishing Episcopacy.
Sharp, with the aid of Rothes, got behind the provisions of the
Indulgence by keeping the indulged out of his diocese. Burnet
took the bolder step of associating with his clergy in framing a
Remonstrance, passed at the Synod, held in Glasgow in October,
resenting this invasion of their rights, and blaming councillors for
winking at dissent, and doing nothing to foster uniformity.' The
Remonstrance was framed by Arthur Ross, afterwards Bishop of
Argyle, Archbishop of Glasgow, and Archbishop of St. Andrews.^ A
smuggled copy reached Lauderdale. He detected treason. Soon
the appellants were cited to the Council, the Synod books examined,
the Remonstrance suppressed, and Burnet informed of his confine-
ment in Glasgow during the approaching sitting of Parliament.*
When Charles saw the document he exclaimed : ' This damned paper
shewes Bishops and Episcopall people are as bad in this chapter
as the most arrant Presbyterian or Remonstrator.'^
Lauderdale had the iron hand that was needed. As Com- Character of
mtssioner to Parliament, indicted for 19th October 1669, after a
royal progress, he arrived at Holy rood. He was no longer the
noble Maitland of the Golden Age of Presbytery. If Mackenzie
and others are credible authorities, Lauderdale was now a gross,
loose, unbearable dictator, who bullied Parliament-men, terrorised
Episcopal admirers, and disgusted Presbyterians by his ' bawdy
discourses and passionate oaths.' ** Lord Ailesbury's sketch of him
depicts a grotesque, vulgar, fawning worldling.''
Lauderdale in his greed secured for himself seven salaries, gifts,
' Wodrow, ii. 145, 146. Row, minister of Balmaclellan, was again molested in Stoneykirk.
He became a Papist : ibid., zyi. The Whigs knew their pastors.
-' Laud. Pap., II. xvi. 137 ; App. Ixiv.-lxvii.
^ Burnet, i. 510. Ross was ejected in 1688. ' Mackenzie, Memoirs, 157, 158.
^ Moray to Lauderdale, 6th October i66g: Laud. Pap., ii. 139, 166.
•■ Memoirs, 182. ' Memoirs, i. 14, i8 (Roxburgh Club, 1890).
228
THE COVENANTERS
The new
Royal Pope.
imposts, minerals, shipwrecks, gold in Jamaica, and other grants ;
in his ambition he aimed at being great in the councils of England,
by his becoming master of Scotland and indispensable to the King.
Lauderdale informed Charles that the Estates began business 'after
prayers by the Bishop of Dunblane [Leighton] for I would not have
the Presbiterian trick of bringing in ministers to tell God Almighty
news from the debates.' The first important bill passed was the
Supremacy Act.' Its significance is indicated by its terms : ' His
Maiestie and his successours may settle, enact, and emit such con-
stitutions, acts, and orders, concerning all ecclesiastical meetings and
maters to be proposed and determined therein.' Never had a Pope
such power. The Covenanters said the Act placed Charles as a Pope
on Christ's throne.^ It was suspected that Lauderdale, having an
inkling of the royal leanings to popery, made a change in the national
faith easier. The aristocracy hailed the Act as a relief from prelatic
arrogance. Upon the introduction of the Supremacy Act Sharp in
private reviled it, as savouring of the method of King Henry viii.,
and tried to blunt its sting by adding the words 'as settled by law,' in
reference to the Church ; but when the debate came on he made his
customary somersault and rated Bishop Ross for distrusting his
Majesty." A militia bill was also passed. Lauderdale then informed
the King that he was sovereign of the Church, with twenty thousand
armed men at his back, a power he had not in England.' The King's
gracious reply contained a command to Lauderdale to cause the
Deposition of hierarchy to depose remonstrating Burnet, ' as unfit to govern that
Archbishop r ■ -< i irT-"!- r 11 • i-iAi
Alexander sea [jzc] any longer. " Truly it was a sea oi troubles m which Arch-
Bumet. bishop Alexander Burnet foundered. Lauderdale gave the bishops a
dinner, and introduced the instruction as '\\.s piece de rc'sista^ice. Sharp
was intractable, till his host silenced the primate by asserting that
ministerial office was ' not jure divino, but depended solely on the
supreme
Magistrate.'''
Kneeling before this Grand Vizier, Burnet
• 1 6th November, Act 2 : Act. Pari. Scot., ii. 554. - Burnet, i. 513.
•" Mackenzie, Memoirs, 159 ; Laud. Pap., ii. 151 : Lauderdale to Moray, 2nd November.
* Laud. Pap., ii. 163. " Ibid., ii. 166. " /bid., ii. 171.
SCHEMES OF LEIGHTON AND LAUDERDALE 229
heard his doom: 'It's the King's will and pleasure that ye be no
more Archbishop of Glasgow.' The unfrocked bureaucrat complais-
antly departed to express his grief, that he ' hath not been so accept-
able as I could have wished.''
Leighton, with the tongue of an archangel, preached on pure Bishop
religion, and, with the wisdom of the serpent, refrained from uttering a "^
manly protest against the incubus crushing religion and its devotees."
Certainly 'one whose soul was like a star and dwelt apart ' could scarcely
feel the crushing deadweight. During the same Parliament many land-
lords obtained liberty to establish fairs — a simple method of exacting
toll; and Lieutenant-General Drummond was ratified in a grant of the
lands of Inchaffray Abbey for proving himself 'the terror of hi's
Majesty's enemies.' ^ The dethronement of Sharp was daily expected,
and Leighton was marked out to succeed Burnet. Leighton pleaded
excuses — disease, weariness, schism, the 'little or no good' bishops
had done.* But the head of Leighton's church sent for him to be
' resurrected ' and sent back to try and mollify the westland Whigs.
King and courtier discussed the Accommodation which was satisfac-
tory to Charles. Leighton was appointed Archbishop of Glasgow in
April 1670, but did not resign Dunblane till after October 1672, thus
administering the affairs of both sees, with a nominal salary for
Glasgow which allowed the Crown to peculate the teinds. With the
view of conciliating the opponents of Episcopacy, Leighton in the
autumn selected six ministers to perambulate the west and recommend
the Accommodation. These were Gilbert Burnet, James Nairn, The Bishop's
minister at Holyrood, a fine preacher, Laurence Charteris, Yester, a '"'""''^"^^ '^ ^'
refined scholar, afterwards Professor of Divinity in Edinburgh, James
Aird, minister at Torryburn, nicknamed ' Bishop Leighton's ape,'
Patrick Cooke, minister at Prestonpans, and Walter Paterson,
minister at Bolton. In their debates nothing surprised them so much
as the aptitude of the peasantry in meeting their arguments with
' Lauti. Pap., ii. 175. '^ Butler, Leighton, 420, 421.
3 Act. Pari. Scot, vii. 618. * Lnuti. P,ip., ii. iSo.
230
THE COVENANTERS
The Parlia-
ment of July
1670.
Holyrood
conference.
Act against
Conventicles.
quotations from Scripture.' The field-preachers followed them and
nullified the work of ' Leighton's Evangelists.'
Parliament again met on 22nd July, and relentless Lauderdale
reappeared as Commissioner. Sharp, Leighton, and other four
bishops attended.- A new Act applicable to certain untried prisoners
who would not divulge information was required, and was the second
passed. It authorised fining and sending to prison or to banishment
refusers to depone, and associates with suspects or rebels. It was a
bad beginning for Leighton, who had not yet lifted his visor.'
In furtherance of the desire of Charles for concord, Lauderdale
summoned to Holyrood on 9th August six ministers, supposed to
favour modified Episcopacy, to meet and confer with Sharp,
Leighton, Rothes, Tweeddale, and Kincardine. The Whigs went
into the conference with halters round their necks. Sharp kept
away. Leighton waxed eloquent over soul-ruining schism and the
need of compromise. Hutcheson, for his party (Wedderburn,
Ramsay, Baird, Gemmel, Burnet, and himself), warily asked for the
proposals in writing and leisure to consider them, the discussion of
them being illegal as yet.' Parliament sat on making most obnoxious
statutes, which Leighton, who kept away, afterwards stigmatised as
inhuman. The fourth statute, ' Act against invading of ministers,'
sent offenders to the gallows and indemnified apprehenders who
slew resisting culprits."' The fifth statute was the notorious ' Act
against Conventicles.' It imposed fine, imprisonment, or banish-
ment on unlicensed preachers who prayed outside their own families ;
fine or imprisonment sine die upon hearers of unlicensed preachers ;
fine upon master or mistress in whose house a conventicle was held,
and. if held in a burgh, fine upon the magistrates. Unlicensed
ministers or field-preachers, convening the lieges for religious
services in conventicles (or houses which could not contain the
worshippers assembled) were liable to death and confiscation.*
' Burnet, i. 524 ; Row, Blair, 468.
' Ibid., 7 ; Laud. Pap., ii. 188.
» Act. Pari. Scot., viii. 8.
" Act. Pari. Scot., viii. 3.
•* Burnet, i. 520 ; Wodrow, ii. 178.
" Ibid., 9 : I yCa. August 1670.
SCHEMES OF LEIGHTON AND LAUDERDALE 231
Seizers of the field-preachers were to receive five hundred merks, and
be indemnified should they slay their prey in the capture. Lauderdale
boastfully wrote to Moray that Parliament had passed a ' Clanking New
iiTi--''fUlj' Clanking
Act ' against conventicles, which had roused the Puritanic spirit ot bold Acts' in 1670.
Cassillis, who alone voted 'no,' 'according to the laudable custom of
his fathers.'' The more politic King was displeased with the brutal
legislation, and told Moray : ' Bloody laws did no good : he would
never have passed it had he known beforehand.'- The ' Act against
disorderly baptisms ' reached with heavy fines those who employed
unlicensed preachers.^ The eighth statute, 'Act against separation
and withdrawing from the publict meetings for Divyne Worship,' was
artfully drawn only to apply to ' all his good subjects of the Reformed
Religion ' — Papists were left out — and every absentee from church for
three Sabbaths, without a good reason, was to be fined. Magistrates
were given the fines of those under the rank of heritor ; heritors who
did not attend church and refused to sign the bond repudiating armed
risings were to have their estates forfeited to the Crown.*
The ' moderate ' Whig ministers often met to discuss the proposal Attempts at
1 • /-^ !-> 1 • 11 1 compromise.
of Lauderdale, which amounted to this — Can Presbyterians, allowed
to have private opinions regarding Church government, meet in
Church courts, presided over by a king-appointed bishop, deprived
of his veto, and to whom no canonical oath of obedience has been
taken.-* The answer was 'no.' Recent legislation had nothing to
do with this determination.'' It is clear that such an amalgamation
was not in harmony with the genius of Presbytery, which opposed
any moderatorship implying permanent ascendency of a pastor over
his brethren. Tweeddale, anxious for a modus vivendi, went to the
west to consult the indulged and to try and arrive at some 'regulation
of episcopacy to a primitive model and the allowance of presbytery ' ;
but he had to confess failure to Lauderdale, since ' some of that gang
will not subscrive to the Lord's Prayer if asked ' ; and the diocese of
' Laud. Pap., ii. 200. - Burnet, i. 523.
' Act. Pari. Scot., viii. 10, Act 6. * Ibid., viii. 1 1.
'■• Wodrow, ii. 178, 179.
232 THE COVENANTERS
Glasgow was ruined by scandalous curates and cruel soldiery.^ The
Moderates accused Leighton of playing fast and loose with them
in secret communications which leaked out, and which the bishop
Conference at explained away." Leighton met in conference with twenty-six Presby-
Decembe/ terian ministers in Paisley on 14th December 1670, of whom some
1670. were unfavourable to the Indulgence. The politic prelate began by
asking, ' Who shall begin our conference with prayer? ' ' Who should
pray here but the minister of Paisley ?' replied Ramsay, the indulged
pastor, noted for his sweet temper.^ Leighton pleaded for peace — of
course, peace plus his Episcopacy, patronage, et cetera — ' pleaded for
it in a high and positive strain,' wrote Burnet, who was present. The
customary wrangle over scriptural bishops and presbyters ensued.
Jamison, a learned pastor and Protester, pulverised episkopos, and
drove Leighton into a corner, out of which Professor Burnet boasted
he retrieved his ordinary. The battery of words was too much for
the recluse, Leighton. His nose bled. He ran out, wringing his
hands and crying, 'I see there will be no accommodation.'' The
meeting dissolved without arriving at a compromise.
Leighton's At a Subsequent meeting held at Kilmarnock the indulged framed
a reply to the Government. They came to Holy rood on 12 th January
and met Rothes, Hamilton, Tweeddale, Leighton, and other coun-
cillors, who again offered the ' Treaty of Accommodation ' to the
deputation. Hutcheson, for his party, laconically replied: 'We are
not free in conscience to close with the propositions made by the
Bishop of Dunblane as satisfactory.''' They declined to give their
reasons. In their perilous circumstances they acted wisely. MacWard,
however, recorded the reasons to this effect, that the bishop of the
compromise suppressed the presbyter and ruling elder, and submitted
to the wrongous supremacy of the civil ruler.* Theirs was the con-
' Tweeddale to Lauderdale, 27lh September 1670 : Laud. Pap., ii. 205, 207. The volume
of Tweeddale- Lauderdale correspondence, which was exhibited in the Glasgow Exhibition
1888, was not available for consultation.
-' Wodrow, ii. 179. ^ Ana/ecta, iii. 66.
■• Wodrow, ii. i8o ; Laud. Pap., iii. App. 233, 234 : Law to Lady Cardross, 28th December
1670.
'' Butler, Leighton, 444 el seq. " Case of the Accommodation, etc., 12, 14, 19 (edit. 1671}.
Accommod,i
tion discarded
SCHEMES OF LEIGHTON AND LAUDERDALE 233
stitutional standpoint established since Melville's day. Sharp was
jubilant over the disaster which followed Leighton's impracticable
concessions to ' beasts,' whom he considered unappeasable until they
got the mastery.^ He also blamed Leighton for ruining the Church.^
Leighton thus found himself in a most uncomfortable predicament,
railed on by Sharp and his ' high ' party as a traitor to Episcopacy,
and banned by the Covenanters as a masked emissary of Rome.
Out of common prayer- meetings at Corsock, Caitloch, and other Development
asylums of homeless ministers, conventicles had developed into potent °^.[j
factors in the national life, which the Government, on reckoning with,
found were neither to be ignored nor suppressed. Offences at common
law had become so multiplied that any drunken trooper or officious
informer was at liberty to apprehend any person on chance of dis-
covering a rebel. Only a people debased by slavery could submit to
such oppression without revolting. The Hillmen hit the happy
medium of maintaining the conviction, expressed by Blackadder,
'that both ministers and people who used such meetings were peace-
able, not set on revenge, but only endeavouring to keep up the free
preaching of the Gospel in purity and power, in as harmless and
inoffensive a way as possible.'^ The persecuted looked upon a
conventicle much as the Israelites viewed the Tabernacle and Ark
in the wilderness, as the Presence of God. After the publication
of the policy of reconciliation, conventicles became more frequent,
of greater dimensions, and more influential, because the gentry also
ventured to countenance them. In May 1668, Michael Bruce held
a conventicle at Anstruther, under the very nose of Sharp, who
demanded a commission to examine this ' gangrene ' of implacable
persons, as he styled their 'mad conventicling humour.' He now
prophesied that ' their confident pranks will have some strange
eruption.' John Blackadder left graphic accounts of his wanderings,
conventicles, communions, baptisms in the west and around Fife,
which, for their exquisite literaiy grace and style, are still well worth
' Sharp to Lauderdale, 2nd Februaiy 1671 : Laud. Pap., ii. 213.
- Burnet, i. 606. * Wodrow, ii. 157 note.
VOL. 11. 2 G
THE COVENANTERS
lilackadilei'a
remiaisceiices
ot conven-
ticling.
perusing.' He said, 'people seemed to smell him out in spite of
all his caution.' In Dundonald Wood the rapturous multitudes sat
on trees, which broke with their weight. At Hill of Beath, on i8th
June 1670, he was guarded by Barscob and a troop of Galloway
men. A militia officer disturbed the peaceful meeting". Instantly
Barscob and a comrade presented pistols. Blackadder, fearing
bloodshed, stopped the service, rushed into the fray, exclaiming :
' I charge and obtest you not to meddle with him or do him any
hurt . . . we came here to offer violence to no man, but to preach
the gospel of peace.'" The ofificer was let go. Yet one of the
results of such gatherings was the ' clanking Act against conventicles.'
Some of the Hill of Beath conventiclers were seized, tried, and
sentenced to the plantations of Virginia.^ Illicit meetings were so
popular that the authorities tried to nullify their influence by putting
in force every repressive statute ; and some zealots, in retaliation,
exhibited their irritation by committing outrages in manses.
Burnet's account of these enormities is exaggerated, as is proved
by the records of the Justiciary Court.* What Burnet refers to is
the execution of four men — Smith, Robertson, Montgomerie, and
Armour — who were tried for rebellion at Pentland, robbing the
manses at Auchinleck, Cambuslang, and Closeburn, and wounding
with sword and pistol Ramsay, minister of Auchinleck, whom they
made swear never to preach there again. Mr. Andrew Lang thinks
that this violence is ignored by Covenanting writers ; but neither of
these historians mentions that the Lord Commissioners of Justiciary
forbade the filling of prisons with suspects, whom no one appeared
to charge, and who were left in the jails to starve. The records
prove that Covenanting districts were characteristically free from
' Memoirs, passim. ^ Ibid.^ 1.(6, 147. ^ Row, lllair, 536, 537.
* Burnet, in the Preface to the Vindicntion, makes tlie most of these cases in charging
the Presbyterians with cruel molestation of the conforming clergy, but the indictment of the
Lord Advocate puts a different face on the crimes, by designating the accused as common
robbers living since Pentland 'in a constant habit of oppression and robbing of his Majesties
good subjects, and particularly the ministers of the Gospel!' : Just. Rec, ii. 114. Such felons
could not be genuine Co\enanters, any more than they could be pious Episcopalians : Burnet,
Vindiuition, Pref. xix., 148, 149, 153, 154.
SCHEMES OF LEIGHTON AND LAUDERDALE 235
penal offences. Innocent persons, some untried, lay in the oubliettes, Conventiciers
till they died ; others long after the orders of liberation had been J,i„e.
issued, but kept back by those interested.'
The trial of Lovell of Cunnoquhie, which was departed from, is
worthy of note in its relation to Sharp's murder.^
In the Records there is no other case like that of Archibald An Episcopal
Beith, Episcopal incumbent in Kilbride, Arran, and his servant, whoijihjune'
on trial were condemned to the gallows for wiling with refreshments "^''^'
unwary travellers, and murdering them for their merchandise.^
The studied good behaviour of the nonconformists drove Lauder- Gilbert
dale into 'the most frantic fits of rage possible,' and he declared to ingenious
Gilbert Burnet his wish that they should openly rebel, so that he P'°J"'-
might have the chance to import Irish Papists to cut their throats.*
Burnet devised, and induced Lauderdale to put into practice, a most
ingenious plan for extinguishing the combustion, on the principle that
fire confined in a chimney is less dangerous than flame spread about.
Laodicean Lauderdale in his fury preferred the cut-throat method ;
in his cooler mood of diplomacy he tested Burnet's scheme, which
provided for cantoning vagabond preachers in couples in selected
parishes, wherein full ministerial power was given to them. This would
confine the conflagration, he reckoned. Accordingly, the Council, on
3rd September, appointed one hundred and twenty ministers to charges
in various disaffected parts: thirteen to parishes round Glasgow, thirty-
two round Irvine, seventeen round Ayr, eight round Kirkcudbright,
fourteen round Hamilton, twelve round Lanark, four round Linlithgow,
six in the Lothians, ten in Argyleshire, and four were recommended
to patrons." This Second Indulgence provided that the indulged
minister should get one-half of the stipend, and his colleague the
other half; that pastoral duty should be confined to parishioners;
that there should be simultaneous communion in each diocese ; that
preaching should be in churches only ; that indulged ministers should
' Burnet, i. 604 ; Lang, Hist., iii. 324 ; Just. Rec, ii. 30, 31, 113, 115 ; Wodrow, ii. 187.
- Cf. postea, 253 ; Just. Rec, ii. 58, 63. ^ /h'lt., ii. 85-98, 113, 125, 127.
* Nis/., i. 605. * //ist. of Indulgence, 179-81 ; Wodrow, ii. 203-10.
236
THE COVFiNANTERS
The Second
Indulgence,
September
1672.
The English
Indulgence,
1672.
not leave their parishes without a licence from the bishop ; that dues
be paid to, and discipline be taken up by, Presbyteries as before.
Ministers outed since 1661 were ordered to attend the parish
churches and be certified by magistrates, while disorderly preachers
were to be reported on and apprehended. The vagabond ministry,
with ' Holy Fairs,' private preaching, and conventicling, was declared
criminal. The position of a Presbyterian was not to be envied : he
was liable to be thrown into prison and kept there an indefinite
time, charged with any offence by any person, who might depart
from the accusation ; fined or banished for not attending church, for
sheltering or speaking to any rebel, for refusing to give satisfactory
information regarding suspects, for listening to field-preachers, for
being one of five strangers at a prayer-meeting, for whispering
against or criticising the Government, for refusing to take the oath
of loyalty, for refusing to own Episcopacy, for crossing the parish
boundary to hear the neighbouring incumbent. Preacher and lay-
man alike were liable to death for convening or praying at any
outdoor meeting, such as a funeral gathering, unless they had
licences.
Charles, now practically thralled to Popery, and desirous to be
freed from Parliamentary trammels, by encouraging courtiers who
favoured toleration, became bold enough to publish a Declaration of
Indulgence to all English nonconformists, 15th March 1672. Using
his nobile offi.cium, he suspended all penal laws referring to matters of
religion and gave freedom to all sects. Very few knew that the
King was a Papist. More discreditable was his selling of his friend-
ship and alliance to Louis xiv. of France.^
For helping the King in his autocratic designs Lauderdale was
rewarded with a dukedom, garter, place in the Council of England,
perpetual presidency of the Scots Council, and other lucrative
privileges. He gratified another ambition by wedding Elizabeth,
Countess of Dysart, daughter of the treacherous William Murray,
the beautiful, brilliant widow of Sir Lionel Tollemache of Helming-
' Forneron, Court of Charles II., 1-43.
SCHEMES OF LEIGHTON AND LAUDERDALE 237
ham. This Delilah owned to having had some influence with
Cromwell, and was not credited with many virtues. Fascinating,
extravagant, rapacious, sticking at nothing to gain her ends, this
' Queen of Love ' trafficked in government patronage ; and, in pro- Lauderdale's
moting her parasites to places of power wherein they could fleece the lov"" °
unfortunate and pay toll to her, she created ruptures between her
husband and his old friends.'
Early in summer, 1672, Lauderdale and the Duchess came to
Edinburgh and made a great display. When the third session of
Parliament assembled on 12th June, she had the audacity to order
chairs for herself and her vice-regal court to be placed in the
legislative chamber.-
In view of the English Indulgence, Lauderdale expected the Parliament in
Scots Presbyterians to fawn at his feet, but found that they despised "^ ' '"
and avoided him. Consequently repressive legislation was renewed.
The first statute ordained that all militia officers should be Episco-
palians who had taken the oath of allegiance.^ An ' Act against
unlawful ordinations ' made ordination by outed ministers punishable
by confiscation and banishment, and declared marriages by them to
be illegal and clandestine. This made the children of nonconformists
illegitimate.* Act 22 imposed fines on those whose infants were not
baptized within thirty days by accredited clergy; Act 23 ordained the
keeping of Restoration Day with festivity, bells, and bonfires, and a
thanksgiving sermon in every parish church. ' The day after the pro-
mulgation of the Second Indulgence, 4th September, Parliament passed
Act 41 'against keepers of conventicles and withdrawers from publict
worship,' for other three years ; amending the former Act, so that
only four strangers might attend family worship, and that no outed
minister could pray except in a house beyond the parish to which his
licence referred." Parliament rose on i ith September. It is evident
that the legislators passed these Acts as precautionary measures, in
' Burnet, i. 437. ^ Mackenzie, Memoirs, 2ig.
"' Act. Pari. Scot., viii. 58. *■ 24lh July, Act 20, ibid., 71.
° Ibid., 72, 73. '■ Ibid., 89.
238 THE COVENANTERS
the hope that the generous Indulgence might have a soothing influ-
ence through time.
Estimate of Leightou did uot return to Parliamentary life in order to mitigate
the rigours invented by his friends, preferring to counsel peace where
and while the sword of Damocles hung over the heads of doomed
dissenters. His Christianity was not heroic. Had the first Christians
evidenced no higher faith, the Gospel would never have crossed the
Vale of Hinnom. In his diocesan work in the west he found, he
said, the people so intractable that they ' would not receive angels if
they committ ye horrid crime of going to presbyteries and synods.' '
He continued throwing oil on the troubled waters until he was able
to report that, through his complacency, ' the west sea is at present
pretty calm.' He considered the Second Indulgence a forlorn hope,
and recorded his belief that the Church would never recover from
' the fatal Act of Glasgow, laying so great a tract waste to make it
quiet, and then stocking again that desert we had made with a great
many howles and satyres.'^ True, the moderate Presbyterians had
got their Indulgence out of a mailed fist. Those ministers convened
in Edinburgh to consider the Indulgence, 24th September, were afraid
to express their views, and parted after concurring that the proposal
was not universally acceptable. A concordat could not be framed to
include a ' salvo ' sufiicient to prevent concurrence with magisterial
encroachment. Six ministers who accepted office under the Second
Indulgence, while resisting the right of King and magistrate to
interfere in ecclesiastical affairs, were summoned to the Council.
The Covenanters were again divided into two contending parties,
the more dissatisfied opponents being incited by their exiled brethren
to pass through the country abusing the Indulgence.''
ciericaUictims Lauderdale ordered the laws to be put into execution.* Eleven
landlords in Renfrewshire were fined in ^368,031, 13s. 4d. Scots.'
The outed clergy living in the Capital were ordered into the country ;
' Leighton lo Lauderdale, isl December 1671 : l.aud. Pap., ii. 217.
'-' Hamilton MSS., Hist. MSS. Com. Rep.., xi., App. vi. 149. ■' Ibid., 142.
^ Lauderdale to Rothes, 21st November 1672, Hist. MSS., XI. vi. 143. " Wodrow. ii. 227.
of Ihc law.
SCHEMES OF LEIGHTON AND LAUDERDALE 239
and the indulged who had not entered into their cantonments were
cited for their contumacy and ordered to take up their parochial duties
before ist June. The indulged who ignored the Restoration Service
were summoned for disloyalty, and nineteen were mulcted of half
their stipends. For refusing to take ministerial instructions from the
Government, Blair of Galston was thrown into jail, where he contracted
a fatal malady.^ Other refractory ministers were denounced and pro-
claimed for apprehension. King Charles, still pursuing his policy of
toleration, on 31st May, wrote enjoining the Council not to press
refusers of the Indulgence who would promise to select a vacant
pulpit or to live orderly. At the same time he menaced the untract-
able, and, in order to stimulate the executive, he required them to
commission a court, consisting of Hamilton, Linlithgow, Dumfries,
Dundonald, and the Lord President, to quell the ' incorrigible rogues '
in Glasgow diocese."
The morose Leighton had to confess to Lauderdale that his under- Bishops a
taking had not succeeded, and that the bishops were a failure : ' for '
us of this order in this kingdom, I believe 'twere little damage either
to Church or State, possibly some advantage to both, if we should all
retire.'^ Concluding that the national troubles were a ' querelle
d' Alman, or a drunken scuffle in the dark,' the invertebrate pacificator
confessed he longed for this ' crazy turf of earth that I carry, which
makes it an uneasy burden to mee,' to ' shortly drop into the common
heap.'^ Nevertheless he continued to approve of 'curbing that
froward party' and did not object to 'those coercions and civill
restraints . . . found needful! to be renewed upon them.'' A popular
clerical demand for a National Synod, which Leighton recommended
to Lauderdale on the ground that it gave parties a freedom of dis-
cussion, and that the genius of the Church voiced itself in such
conventions, was opposed by Lauderdale, whose recollections of the
clerical petitions of 1638, as he said, made him fear evil, as a burned
child dreads the fire." At length, sick of the unhappy struggle,
' Wodrow, ii. 217. '^ Hist. MSS. Com. Rep., XI. vi. 144. ^ Laud. Pap., ii. 238.
* lbid.,\\\. 75, 76. ' i6tli June 1674 : ibui., iii. 50. * Ibid., iii. 54.
240 THE COVENANTERS
Resignation of Leighton resigned office, retired in December 1674, and settled in
16*74. °"' Sussex. In the dark days that followed the murder of Sharp, and
the rout at Drumclog, the King wrote inviting Leighton to return to
Scotland to assist in restoring concord ; but the development of
events created a new situation in which the proposal came to nought.
When on a visit to London, Leighton died in the Bell Inn, Warwick
Lane, on 25th June 16S4, aged seventy-four years. He was laid
beside his brother, Sir Elisha, in the chancel of Horsted Keynes
Church.^
With the light now fully thrown upon the bloody arena of which
Leighton was a spiritual overseer, it is not surprising to find that the
efforts of Leighton for conciliation, and his policy of comprehension,
were distasteful to honest, godly men, who rightly protested against
a legal Church having Charles for its Head, and believed that the
Accommodation was only a sop thrown to Cerberus."
Leighton an With all Leighton's fame for piety and anxiety for concord among
contentious preachers and distracted citizens, he was in reality a more
inflexible Prelatist than any other of the bishops, who, however, were
less nervous in occupying their perilous position. As overtly as he
pleaded that the spirit of the Gospel only was necessary for salvation
— the form of religion being quite indifferent — he as covertly worked
for the enforcement of the letter of the inquisitorial law against which
any revulsion of his was indefinite and ineffective. His saintliness
was timorous and self-protective, not the complement of a soul,
manly, magnanimous, and heroic.
Rottenness in The rottenness in high places referred to by Moray" grew to such
a pitch that universal corruption burst out. In their private letters
the aristocrats undermined and betrayed each other like vulgar knaves.
An Anglo-Scottish intrigue to humiliate Lauderdale had its inception,
according to Lauderdale, in the ingenious brain of Gilbert Burnet,
who incited Hamilton to disaffection. Lauderdale blamed Hamilton
for defection, and the latter accused the former of malice. Hamilton
' Burnet, ii. 63, 427, 428 ; Butler. Leighton, 506, 511.
'■' Cf. Burnet, i. 496-536, chap. xiii. ^ He died in July 1673.
inflexible
Prelatist.
high places.
SCHEMES OF LEIGHTON AND LAUDERDALE 241
had asked and expected much and got Httle. He opposed Lauderdale's
scheme of Union, and had been badly treated by Hatton, so that he
was ripe for a rupture. So were others. The secular affairs of the
day make a sordid story.^ The Lauderdale connection battened on
ill-gotten gains, Hatton even sweating the coinage.^
Parliament met on 12th November 1673 to receive the King's
demand for the suppression of ' insolent field-conventicles.' ' The
Hamilton party — Rothes, Tweeddale, Oueensberry, Morton, Rox-
burgh, Drummond, Dumfries — met on the nth, and arranged that it
should be moved that the King's letter be not answered until they
had discussed the national grievances.* This unexpected assault only
temporarily disconcerted Lauderdale, who outmanoeuvred his oppo- Attacks on
nents by introducing three bills discharging the unpopular import frustrated.^
duties on salt, brandy, and tobacco. He wisely burked a proposal to
introduce a liturgy. The King informed the opposition that they did
him no good service who tried to unseat his faithful Commissioner.
A similar attack upon him in the English Commons in January also
failed.^ Lauderdale knew how to humour his master, and thus wrote
to him : ' I am your secretarie for Scotland, and by that place
obliged to atend you, bot I lye at your feet, do with me what ye
please.'" Hamilton and Tweeddale laid the public grievances before
the King, and were 'dismissed with fair words.' Lauderdale was
practically sole ruler in Scotland. He had Sharp so well in hand that
he could afford to display his own satanic brilliancy in a profane
expression of patronage : ' My Lord, sit down here at my right hand
untill I make all your enemies your footstool.' ' Those special spiritual
favours which Mackenzie credits the Duchess of Lauderdale with
promising to Welsh and other wandering preachers had practical
illustration in an ' Act of Grace,' pardoning past offences of con-
' An Accompt of Scotland'' s Grievances, By Reason of the Duke of Lauderdales Ministrie
(1672), p. 29.
- Burnet, ii. 24; Lauderdale got in donations ^26,900 stg. ; Hatton, /i 5,300, and ;^25oo
out of the Mint yearly ; AthoU got ;£i5oo of fines, and ^^1450 yearly : An Accompt, 29.
^ Act. Pari. Scot., viii. 208. ^ Mackenzie, Memoirs, 256 ; Burnet, ii. 38.
' Laud. Pap., iii. 21. " ist February 1674 : ibid., 26. ' An Accompt, 38.
VOL. II. 2 H
242 THE COVENANTERS
venticlers, which Lauderdale in the King's name proclaimed, in March
1674, before proceeding south to Court.^ It created fresh hopes,
multiplied field-preachers, and made the multitudinous conventicles
more influential, the gentry now countenancing them close to the
Primate's palace." Naturally Sharp was furious at the turn things
were taking. Compensation was at hand, where he least expected it.
Apprehension On Saturday, 7th February 1674, James Mitchell was apprehended
Mitcru ^y ^''' William Sharp and two servants of the Primate, and lodged in
February 1674, the Tolbooth of Edinburgh. Unsuspected, he and his wife kept a
little shop in the Capital for the sale of brandy and tobacco. Sharp
himself in passing noted the interested gaze of Mitchell at his door,
and caused his apprehension. He had also been discovered at the
funeral of Robert Douglas.^ He disclaimed identity with the assassin.
He was instantly brought before the Commissioner and the Privy
Council, and a committee, consisting of Rothes, Hatton, and Primrose,
was appointed to examine him. Sharp sent Nicoll Sommervell,
brother-in-law of Mitchell, to visit the prisoner and assure him of a
pardon on his confessing his crime.* Mitchell was willing if he got
an assurance in the King's name. Primrose said, ' It would be a
strange force of eloquence to persuade a man to confess and be
hanged.' Lauderdale authorised the committee to give this assurance.
Mitchell's Rothes took him apart and conveyed the promise. Thereupon
i^^prisonmenf Mitchell upon his knees confessed his attempt upon the Primate,
he and his examiners thereafter signing the written confession.
Mitchell's papers, Hatton's letters to Kincardine, and the Minutes
of the Privy Council bear this out, to this effect : ' He did then con-
fesse vpon his knees he was the person, vpon assurance given him by
one of the Committy, as to his lyfe, who had warrand from the Lord
Commissioner and Councill to give the same.'^ Two days later he
adhered to his confession before the Privy Council, the members
' Mackenzie, Memoirs, 273; Kirkton, 342. - Blackadder, Memoirs, 164.
2 Burnet, ii. 136 ; Hist. Not., 90. * Burnet, ii. 136 ; Wodrow, ii. 471.
<■ Reg. Sec. Cone, Acta, 1673-8, p. 55, 12th February 1674; pp. 63, 64, 12th March 1674;
Papers left by J. M., Laing MSS., Farrago, 269 ; Wodrow, ii. 248 ; Just. Rcc, ii. 337.
SCHEMES OF LEIGHTON AND LAUDERDALE 243
of this court condemning him to lose his right hand and to be for-
feited ; and for this doom passing him on to the Justiciary Court
for indictment and sentence. On 2nd March, he appeared in the
dock. As one of the judges, who hated Sharp, passed by the
prisoner to the bench, he said, ' Confess nothing, unless you are
sure of your limbs as well as of your life.' ^ Naturally Mitchell
resiled from his confession, and brought about a deadlock in the
court, which was adjourned, first till 9th March, then till 25th March,
when the Lord Advocate deserted the charge.^ Mitchell was com-
mitted to the Tolbooth, no doubt owing this respite to the fact that
the King's abhorrence of bloodshed made the Council pause, before
imprisoning him on the Bass, as they intended to do. The new state
prison on the Bass Rock, a solitary islet in the Firth of Forth, was Prison on the
a recent acquisition of the Crown from a mmion of Lauderdale, who
advised its purchase at a great price, and then had himself appointed
as its salaried captain/ It was the most vile and unwholesome of
prisons.
Every effort was made, but in vain, to suppress the conventicles
and to apprehend the fugitive preachers. Militiamen and informers
scoured the country in search of Welsh, Semple, Cargill, Blackadder,
Veitch, Peden, Hog, Eraser, and others, ;^400 sterling being offered
for the first two, and 1000 merks for each of the others alive
or dead. Persecution made the field-missions prosper the more.
Hosts of eight or ten thousand persons assembled to hear Welsh,
Blackadder, and Welwood, when they perambulated Fifeshire. The
parish churches were empty, Rothes and his household being the only
worshippers in Leslie church one Sabbath. This happy interlude,
which lasted for about a quarter of a year, was called 'The Blynk,' 'The Biynk,'
i.e. a glimpse of sunshine amid stormy showers and darkness.*
Brushes with the military became more frequent, and in some cases
' Burnet, ii. 137. For indictment and trial, ci.Just. Rec, ii. 255-62 ; App., 307-39.
' Just. Rec, ii. 268 ; The Scots Worthies (Carslaw's edition), 3S2-97.
'^ Accomfit of Scotland's Grievances, 38; M'Crie, The Bass Rock, 17; Blackadder,
Memoirs, 267.
^ Blackadder, Memoirs, 155-69 ; Wodrow, ii. 234.
244
THE COVENANTERS
Capture of
Peden.
The widows'
petition.
prisoners were taken and blood was shed. During these skirmishes
the much excited worshippers imagined they saw supernatural beings
protecting them from the harmless shots of the soldiery. The
garrison of Mid-Calder surprised a conventicle conducted by Riddell,
shot Davie, a heritor, and carried away some prisoners and their
clothes, Bibles, and belongings.'
Robert Gillespie, an irregular preacher 'at the horn,' was taken
after a conventicle at Falkland, and on 2nd April sent by the Privy
Council to the Bass to be immured." Gillespie was soon followed by
the hitherto elusive Peden, whom Major Cockburn captured at
Knockdow, Ballantrae, the house of Hugh Ferguson, and whom the
Council, on 26th June, sentenced to the Bass, where Peden was kept
for four years. Ferguson was fined 1000 merks for resetting Peden,
and the captors were handsomely rewarded.'
On 1 6th June the Privy Council issued an Act for apprehending
rebels, especially Welsh, Semple, and Arnot, and offering as a sub-
stantial reward to informers the fines exigible from conventiclers
seized.* Two days later a proclamation made heritors liable for their
tenantry, masters for their servants, and magistrates for burgesses,
and offered the escheats to heritors and liferenters.^ These orders
accorded with instructions sent from the King, explaining, ' It is not
for their opinions, but their traitorous practices, that we intend to
punish them.''' This idea of Lauderdale Mackenzie afterwards
repeated in his Vindication of the Government.
On 4th June 1674, the narrow Parliament Close was the scene
of a remarkable incident which terrified Sharp into imagining that
Jenny Geddes and her brigade of stool-throwers had seen a resurrec-
tion. Fifteen women, mostly in widows' weeds, blocked the entry to
the Council-chamber, ready to thrust into each councillor's hand a
' Blackadder {Memoirs, 158) calls him John. A gravestone in Rathgate churchyard
records : ' Here lies the Body of James Davie, who was shot at Blackdub, April 1673, by
Heron,' etc.: Martyr Graves of Scotland, 237.
^ Wodrow, ii. 223.
^ Walker, Peden in Six Saints, i. 49 ; ii. 130 ; Wodrow, ii. 224, 356 ; M'Crie, Bass, 31-3.
* Wodrow, ii. 237 note. ' Ibid., 235 note. ' Ibid., 239 note.
SCHEMES OF LEIGHTON AND LAUDERDALE 245
petition lamenting their spiritual starvation and supplicating that
liberty be granted to faithful ministers to provide the citizens with
a pure Gospel after the Presbyterian form. Rothes gallantly received
the petition of Widow Livingstone with raised hat and insinuating
speeches. The furtive Sharp, fearing a thrust under the fifth rib,
hurried past amid a fusillade of vituperations, such as ' Judas,' ' traitor,
glad that only the gentle hand of a widow detained him while she
prophetically exclaimed, 'that neck must pay for it ere all was done.'
The Council decreed that the paper was seditious and that the
tumult was a plot. The petitioners were summoned ; a few were
thrown into prison, and three — Mrs. Elizabeth Rutherford, Wariston's
daughter Margaret, and Lady Mersington — were banished out of
Edinburgh,^ chiefly for refusing to implicate others. Absentees were
denounced.
In March 1669, the city of Edinburgh was fined ;^5o for a
conventicle held in Widow Paton's house; on 24th June 1674, the
city had to pay ;^ioo for a conventicle held in April or May by Weir
and Johnston in the Magdalene Chapel. Some of the attenders at
this conventicle were still in prison awaiting trial. Similarly the city
of Glasgow was fin^d ;^ioo for recent conventicles. On 25th June,
the Council examined a batch of Fife lairds for hearing and harbour-
ing Welsh and other preachers. They were mulcted in 20,000 merks,
being sent back to jail till their fines were paid." No favour was Fines,
shown to any one. Linlithgow politely informed Atholl that Atholl's f^^^^^^'
' or/ fugitations.
own steward had been fined 2000 merks for sheltering Veitch.^ A
long list of persons escheated to Sir William Sharp, cash-keeper to
the King, shows how widespread nonconformity was in July 1674
in Fifeshire.* It includes fifty laymen, two ladies, and forty-two
ministers, including Hog, Welwood, Kirkton, and Cargill. Some
appear to be identical with the Magus Moor conspirators. Escheats
were often sold by public auction. By an Act of i6th July witnesses
were forced to give evidence on oath regarding conventiclers, or stand
' Mackenzie, Mctnoirs, 273 ; Kirkton, 344 ; Wodrow, ii. 246, 268.
- Wodrow, ii. 238. ' Hist. MSS. Com. Rep., viii. 32. ^ Wodronu MSS., Ix.
246
THE COVENANTERS
Case of
Thomas
Forrester,
l62S(?)-i7o6.
Nonconform-
ists desire
protection.
confessed themselves. That there might be no escape, a royal
commission was granted to three influential courts, mostly com-
posed of nobles, in three districts, for the purpose of exterminating
conventicles.'
As proving how weak was the policy of repression among good
and thoughtful men, the case of Thomas Forrester, Episcopal
minister at Alva, is prominent. After a minute study of the
Apologetical Narration by Brown and similar works upon the
question, Forrester felt himself constrained to inform his co-
presbyters in Stirling that he was prepared to prove that the ' prelatic
frame of government' was both unlawful and unscriptural. The
brethren never asked his proofs. He left their meetings to associate
with the persecuted. He was apprehended and imprisoned in
Edinburgh in the spring of 1674, but took advantage of the in-
demnity in March to obtain freedom. On 29th April the diocesan
Synod of Dunkeld deposed him." He became a field-preacher,
latterly an able polemic and defender of Presbytery, and, after the
Revolution, was appointed Principal of St. Mary's, at St, Andrews,
and Professor of Divinity.*
At this juncture the nonconformists were anxiously devising means
whereby a succession of sound ministers might be maintained and
united under Presbyterial rule. Regulations were suggested for licens-
ing the wandering students who accompanied the outlawed preachers,
for giving calls, for establishing Church courts, and for asking the
protection of the Crown for loyal Presbyterians.^ Large numbers of
the outed ministers met in Edinburgh in June, and after drawing up
a series of overtures, adjourned till October. These overtures were
sent down to Presbyteries or ' societies ' for discussion and approval,
and the substance of them and of the facts relative to the Church was
included in an address to the Government. The overtures were
' Wodrow, ii. 245.
IMd., 258.
^ Forrester wrote Rcctius Instrueiidiim in 1681, published 1684 ; The Hierarchical Bishofs
Claim, etc., 1699, a reply to Scott, Munro, and Honyman ; Review and Consideration, reply
to Sage, 1706. * Wodrow, ii. 272.
SCHEMES OF LEIGHTON AND LAUDERDALE 247
generally approved of.' The righteous desired ministers and meeting-
houses ; their rulers gave them General George Munro, the militia,
and thirteen garrisons !
Not all the clergy of the Established Church had lost their Conformists
interest in self-government, and many of them desired a national national
Synod wherein they might publicly appear as operative members of ^y™"^-
a Church with a constitution, and having some say in the administra-
tion of its own distinctive affairs. This was considered the more
necessary that the Established Church now had no authorised
Standards, apart from the Presbyterian Standards. Some leading
laymen also thought a Synod desirable. The movement took shape
in May 1674. Sir William Sharp, at the instance of Atholl, Argyll,
Murray, and Linlithgow, on 7th May, wrote to Lauderdale upon the
subject," who in turn informed Leighton that he could not concur in
the proposal, since he could ' expect no manner of good ' from a
Synod. Some bishops were as friendly to the proposal as the Primate
was inimical to it. Notably James Ramsay, Leighton's successor in
Dunblane, the same enthusiast who bonfired the Covenant at Lin-
lithgow, and rescued Hamilton while gallantly he fought for the Kino-
at Rullion Green, voiced the opinions of his diocese. Laurie, ' the
nest egg,' now Bishop of Brechin, also favoured the proposal.^ Four
incumbents in the diocese of Edinburgh — Turner, Cant, Robertson,
and Hamilton — tried to induce Young, the Bishop of Edinburgh, who
was supposed to be sympathetic, to persuade the Primate to convene
a Synod.* Sharp was incensed at the idea. He frantically wrote to
the English Primate declaring ' the Gospel is at stake . . . there is
a fire set to our own bed-straw by sons of our own bowels, who
viper-like seek to eat that which produced them. . . . Cant, a
presbyter, has shaken off all fear of God . . . calling me a great
grievance to the church . . .' and unless Canterbury would come to
his help he would suffer shipwreck and the Church be wounded.'
Sharp entreated Sheldon to influence the King against the proposal.
' Row, li/air, 542 ; Wodrovv, ii. 274. ^ Laud. Pap., iii. 42, 54. 3 Wodrow, ii. 300.
* Laud. Pap., iii. 46. '> Wodrow, ii. 301 ; iMing MSS., 81, 82.
248
THE COVENANTERS
Sharp and
Lauderdale
suppress
Bishop
Ramsay.
Meantime, in St. Andrews on 8th July, he called a meeting of the
bishops of his province with some presbyters to discuss and practi-
cally to shelve the subject. Bishop Ramsay made an honest stand
and gave reasons for the need of reform in the Church. Sharp
rebuked Ramsay, who left the meeting. As soon, therefore, as
opportunity offered, Sharp hurried up to London and stayed nine
months croaking over incipient revolution. The peacemakers fell
on trouble. Insubordination was insufferable to the bureaucratic
Lauderdale, who got a royal mandate for the removal of the petition-
ing ministers from their charges, and for the transference of Ramsay,
within fourteen days, to the See of the Isles, beyond the reach of
' meddling with affairs relative to the church.' ^ The warrior bishop,
who denied all factious intentions, and admitted his desire for the
authorisation of regulative formularies, was not to be suppressed.
He carried his case to court. He wrote fierce letters to Sharp,
accused him of tyranny, threatened him with the revelation of ' foul
things,' and refused to attend meetings where there was no right of
free speech.^ After a conflict for more than a year Ramsay found
himself outwitted by astuter diplomatists, and was compelled to
submit obsequiously to the Primate after an inquiry in a court of
bishops presided over by the Archbishop of Glasgow, and humbly to
throw himself 'at his sacred Majesty's feet.' ^
The national Synod was not convened. With the retiral of
Archbishop Leighton and the reinstallation of Alexander Burnet,
29th September 1674, the exterminators of the Covenanters had their
hands strengthened, and the policy of ' blood and iron ' was prose-
cuted with greater vigour than ever.
A rigorous winter followed by a blasting summer, 'making the
heavens brass and the earth iron,' although it 'broke the staff of
their bread,' was to the Covenanters a light affliction compared with
' i6th July 1674 : Wodrow, ii. 304. * Wodrow MSS., xxxii. 129.
2 Turner, Cant, and Robertson also submitted : Wodrow, ii. 315, 342 ; Kirkton, 348 ; Laud.
Pap., iii. 64; Grub, Hist., iii. 250-2; Law, Memoirs, 70, 71, 84. Ramsay was recalled, 27th
April 1675, was translated to Ross in 1684, and died in Edinburgh on 22nd October 1696.
Cant was afterwards appointed Principal of Edinburgh College.
SCHEMES OF LEIGHTON AND LAUDERDALE 249
the cruel humiliation imposed upon them by an order of the Privy
Council, that all the lieges should assemble in the parish churches
on a fixed Fast Day to confess sin, repent, and thereby avert the
wrath of God/
The indulged clergy were worst off, because some of them had The policy of
, - 1 1 • 1 1 I ■ 1 r '™" ^"<i blood.
got no Stipends for years, and this hardship was a good reason for
their ignoring their instructions and ministering beyond their licensed
districts, in order to regain some popularity, and with it, bread. The
Government at once prosecuted these breakers of the licence.^
The fever of conventicling nowhere abated, although informers and
troopers with dogs ranged everywhere in search of the elusive
preachers in the Lothians, Fife, and the south, and heavy fines were
imposed on towns where illegal preachings took place.^ A party
of guardsmen with their hounds by night surprised the house of
Cardross. They were disguised as civilians. They were in search
of John King, chaplain there, Robert Langlands, tutor, and any
incriminating papers. Sir Mungo Murray was the hero of this
illegal and brutal burglary, in which they inhumanly treated the
delicate Lady Cardross, as well as broke up lockfast places, and
carried off King. The peasantry rose and rescued him. Rightly,
Cardross petitioned the Council for redress, only to find himself in
August charged with being associated with criminal rescuers of an
irregular preacher ; his wife, too, was accused of harbouring a rebel
conventicler. The Council ordered Cardross to prison in the Castle Prosecution of
of Edinburgh during the King's pleasure, and fined him in /^i 1 12, Cardross"
I OS. sterling. They also turned his house into a garrison. Not till
February 1677 was he released, then to be charged afresh for his
having two children baptized by unlicensed ministers, for which he
was fined in one-half of his valued rent.'*
News of the rescue was sent to London, whence a letter came in
June demanding an inquiry into the continued disorders. As a
' Wodrow, ii. 280 note : 15th July 1675. - Ibid., 296.
^ At a fight at Bathgate fifteen prisoners were taken — 13th March 1675 : Laud. Pap,
iii. 77.
• Wodrow, ii. 288-93, 357. 35S-
VOL. II. 2 I
250
THE COVENANTERS
' Jeddart
justice ' on
the Borders.
' Letters of
Intercommun-
ing,' 6th
August 1675.
result of this the Council passed an Act, 13th July, establishing
thirteen garrisons in the counties of Perth, Linlithgow, Kinross,
Lanark, Selkirk, Roxburgh, Stirling, Renfrew, Ayr, Dumfries, and
empowering the district commissioners of excise to quarter and
victual the troops.' This novel exaction was resisted by some land-
lords in Berwickshire. Sir Patrick Hume of Polwarth boldly refused
payment and lodged a bill of suspension against the decreet, which
brought the whole subject before the Council. They gave Polwarth
' Jeddart justice,' imprisoning him till the King's pleasure was de-
clared. In October, the King replied approving of this treatment of
Polwarth as ' a factious person,' declaring him incapable of all public
trust, and ordering him to a cell in Stirling Castle." In his trials
Polwarth was supported and encouraged to be firm by the Earl of
Home, Lord Cardross, and the Duke of Hamilton, the latter promis-
ing him help.^ The baffled Council devised a new method of striking
at those who refused to compear in court, or to observe the terms of
the Indulgence. This method was promulgated in the scandalous
'Letters of Intercommuning,' 6th August 1675.'' This proclamation
discharged the lieges from resetting, supplying with meat, drink,
shelter, or intelligence, from intercommuning with certain rebels then
' at the horn ' and therein designated, under pain of being prosecuted
as 'art and part with them.' Twenty-one ministers were named,
among the number being Cargill, Welsh, Semple, Arnot, Hog,
M'Gilligen, Eraser of Brea, King, and seventy-three men and women,
many of them heritors, ladies of title, and dames of influence. On
3rd August 1676, this black list was augmented by the names of
Kirkton, Welwood, Donaldson, and other famous field-preachers.
Thus the doom of traitors was applicable to the friends or suspected
friends of the outlaws.
During the perpetration of the severities in Fifeshire, four out-
laws distinguished themselves, and were largely instrumental in
' Wodrow, ii. 282. ' Ibid., 294 ; Row, Blair, 562, 565.
^ Marclwiont Papers ; Hist. MSS. Com. Rep., xiv. App. iii. 112, 1 ij-
■• Aldis, List, 2058, 2077 ; Wodiow, ii. 286 note.
SCHEMES OF LEIGHTON AND LAUDERDALE 251
bringing about that state of affairs which ultimately ended in the Outlaws in
triumph of Covenanting principles. These were Donald Cargill, clrliu. °°
Richard Cameron, John Balfour of Kinloch, and David Hackston of
Rathillet. Cargill had, since October 1662, been the outed minister
of the Barony, Glasgow, where he had served seven years. He was
the son of Laurence Cargill, notary, and laird of a small estate in
Rattray, and of his wife Marjorie Blair. He matriculated in St.
Salvator's College in 1645, '^^^ w^s licensed by the Presbytery of
St. Andrews on 13th April 1653.* At the height of this con-
venticling period he was in his prime, and well able to attempt the
memorable long ' Cargill loup ' over the fearful chasm in the Keith,
when he was chased from the Haerchen Hill. A sad, silent, prayerful
prophet was Cargill, mourning a dead wife, lamenting the destruction
of the Church, and uttering malisons thus : ' Wo, wo, wo to him [the
King], his name shall stink while the world stands for treachery,
tyranny, and leachery ... if these men die the ordinary death of
men, then God never sent me, nor spoke by me.'-
Among the names of conventiclers in 1675 appear those of Richard
' Allan Cameron, merchant in Faulkland, Margaret Paterson, his *'""°°-
spouse, Mr. Richard Cameron, his son, Michael Cameron, indweller
there.' ^ Richard Cameron was born in Falkland, matriculated in
St. Andrews in March 1662, and took the degree of M.A. on
22nd July 1665. Thereafter he became schoolmaster and precentor
in Falkland.* Cameron came under the influence of the stirring
outlawed preacher, John Welwood, whom we find in 1675 writing to
Richard : ' You have the honour to be persecuted for righteousness :
have a care, be not lifted up, for there may be several tryals before
your hand.'* Welwood also wrote from Dundee : ' My desire is that
the Lord may help you to be holy and harmless in a crooked genera-
' Patrick Walker, Some Remarkable Passages in the Life atid Death of . . . Cargill, 1 732 ;
iiix Saints, ii. 1-62, 119-222 ; Biog. Presby., ii. 1-54 (Edin., 1837).
^ Six Saints, ii. 8, 10. ^ VVodrow MSS., xxxiii. 142.
* Patrick Walker, Life, in Biog. Presb., i. 191-319; Six Saints, i. 215-365; ii. 155-98;
Downie, The Early Home of Richard Cameron, 1-38 ; \\.^x\i!i^%%, Richard Cameron {Y3xaQi\.\%
Scots Series, /fi.r.f/w). = Edin., 13th Dec. 1675 '■ Laing .\fSS., 359, fol. 4.
252 THE COVENANTERS
tion.' He accompanied Welsh in his wanderings, and won the esteem
of that good man for his piety and gifts. When the itinerant
Presbytery met at Henry Hall's house, Haughhead, Teviotdale,
Welsh, Semple, and other ministers licensed Cameron, knowing that
he was an enemy of the Indulgence. They sent him on a mission to
the unregenerate in Annandale, and on his appearing timid, Welsh
encouraged him with the moving benediction, 'Go your way, Ritchie;
set the fire of hell to their tail.' * This the clerical Samson effectively
did. That imported flame, stirring the inflammable Celtic disposition
of Cameron, made him an uncompromising antagonist of the Govern-
ment and of their lukewarm allies — the indulged. After joining
Welwood and Kid in their perilous and discouraging campaign
against the favourers of compromise with the regnant party in State
and Church, Cameron deemed it expedient to seek a refuge on the
Continent, whither Welwood sent him a letter, on 26th January 1677,
grudging him his 'stay where no religion is.'-
john Balfour— Among the auditors of the field-preachers in Fife, in the summer
K^niochr"^ ^^ 1672, was 'John Balfour, portioner in Kinloch,'^ in the parish of
Collessie. He was a squat, squint-eyed, fierce-looking man, and was
known as ' Burly.' With the strain of the wild unreliable Balfour of
Burleigh blood in him, it was not singular that he should disobey the
order of the court to compear and answer for conventicling, for which
contempt of court he was under warrant for apprehension. In all
likelihood he is the same criminal mentioned in a list of escheats
granted to Sir William Sharp, and also in the ' Letters of Inter-
communing.'* Balfour's brother-in-law, David Halkerstoun, or
Hackston, proprietor of Rathillet, in Kilmany parish, succeeded his
father in 1670.* He was esteemed a gallant country gendeman, at
first of the prelatic party, and having employment of some kind from
• Si.r Saints, i. 219. 2 Laiti^ MSS., 359, fol. 33.
' John Balfour of Kinloch, son of John Balfour and Grizzel H.iy, daughter of Hay of Paris,
Perthshire, born c. 1640 ; served heir to his grandfather Robert, 26th February 1663 ; married
Barbara Hackston, sister of Hackston of Rathillet. His confiscated property went to Lord
Lindores : Scot. Mai^., i. 130 (September 18 17).
' Wodro'jj MSS., Ix. ; Wodrow, ii. 287, 288 note. ° Miller, Fife, ii. 318.
John Balfour of Kinloch — ' liurly '
(^Photographed from a Portrait in the possession of Charles Pearson, Esq., Alloa, by Mr. A. Piihie., Allca.
Prepared by Mr. C. S^veet, /Co/hesay)
SCHEMES OF LEIGHTON AND LAUDERDALE 253
Rothes. A sordid transaction on the part of Archbishop Sharp Uavid Hack-
resulted in his being brought into active alliance with the con- Raihiiiet.
venticlers. It is a story of agrarian outrage. The estate of
Cunnoquhie in Monimail, a gift of James iii. to the church of
St. Andrews, was held by a family of Lovells, the last of whom,
William, became bankrupt, and in resisting a distraint in 1671
killed the sheriff-officer, for which he was summoned to the Justiciary
Court.^ On the restoration of the hierarchy, Sharp became superior
of Cunnoquhie, and, on Lovell's failure to pay the feu-duties, resumed
possession of the fief, to the detriment of the heirs and creditors."
Hackston appears to have had two interests in the estate, being a
creditor, and also acting as collector of the Episcopal rents for
his friend, Sharp. For a bond of ^1000 Scots, Sharp sold
his interest to Hackston. Sharp was notorious for avariciousness.
Hackston failed to implement his bargain, or to give satisfactory
count and reckoning, with the result that Sharp threw him into
jail, where he lay for months. On his release Hackston swore,
' God damn him if ever he went to church so long as there was a
bishop in Scotland.'' The popularity of the Primate was not increased
by the fact that his brother, as cash-keeper to the King, intromitted
with the fines, and by the suspicion that Rothes and the Archbishop
worked to each other's hands.'' The King blamed the authorities for
winking at conventicles in order to get fines, and said to Monmouth
that if Rothes and the other nobles had done their duty there would
have been no conventicles in Fife.*
The unsuccessful attempt of James Mitchell, in December 1675, e™'^' turiure
to break the Tolbooth, gave the Privy Council an opportunity to lUl'^^i^
examine that undischarged prisoner. The new charge was that he Januarj' 1675.
was in the rebellion of 1666; and his alleged confession to that
effect before the Council, now produced to the Lords of Justiciary,
he renounced. To elicit the facts, the Council authorised a joint
' Jits/. Rec.^ ii. 58, 60, 63 ; Book of Adjournal, 17th July 1671.
- Act. Pari. Scot., V. 449. 3 ^ jy^^ Relation, etc., A7ial. Scot., ii. 38S.
* MacWard Papers, Woiiroiv MSS., \\. (lat. 5. i. 10), SS. » Laud. Pap., 23242, fol. I.
254 THE COVENANTERS
bench of judges and nobles to torture him. In the vaulted chamber
beneath the House of Parliament, where Linlithgow presided on
the night of the i8th January, the inquiry began. The accused
justly pleaded that he had stood his trial. Linlithgow set aside the
plea, asserting that he was only asked to own a former confession.
The first diet ended with the threat of 'a sharper thing.' At the
second diet, 22nd, the ugly boots and wedges lay on the table, and
Linlithgow said to the prisoner, ' I will see if that will make you
do it.' Mitchell, who knew the law, argued that a confession
extorted by torture could not be used against him or others. The
judges hesitated and adjourned. At a third diet, 24th, the court
met in the inner Parliament House, in full state. The executioner
and his instruments were there. Mitchell was obdurate. The
executioner tied him to a chair, and asked the judges which leg
they selected for the boots. ' Either,' was the reply. Mitchell
boldly exclaimed, ' Take the best of the two, for I freely bestow it
in the cause.' He dropped the right leg into the frame. As the
torture proceeded. Lord Advocate Nisbet and he debated on the
question of magisterial function and power. The grand test of
morale began as the wedges were slowly driven down, thirty queries
being ejected amid the blows, followed by the rasping question of
the judicial tongue, 'Any more to say?' As often repeated was the
resolute reply, ' No more, my Lords.' At the ninth stroke, nature
failed. 'Alas, my Lord, he is gone,' cried the executioner. The
torturers vanished. As soon as Mitchell recovered from the swoon
he was carried back to prison — his smashed limb being unable to
support him. It was said that the torture would have been renewed
had not Sharp received a warning that he would get a shot from a
steadier hand. The injured man was kept in the Tolbooth till
Mitchell con- January 1677, when he was transported to the Bass with the devout
Eraser of Brea. In direst misery he lay there another year, till
Sharp discovered another prosecutor from whose clutches he could
not escape. Peden might rove over his rocky Patmos, Eraser might
pluck the cherries in its garden, but broken Mitchell might only
fined on the
Bass.
SCHEMES OF LEIGHTON AND LAUDERDALE 255
hear in darkness the scream of the sea-gulls and the distant psalm
of praise.^ With this form of entertainment the governors of
Scotland began the year 1676. Before they saw the end of it they
had made many a home desolate and many a heart sad. The Govern-
ment were not dealing with a few ignorant fanatical peasants, being
forced to acknowledge that ' Schollars, merchants, and tradesmen
are the chief persons who are ordinarily poisoned with factions and
Schismatick principles.' "
The Council, attributing the decay of religion to absenteeism a Fresh
from church, sounded another blast on their horn, on ist March ,st March '
1676, in a 'Proclamation against Conventicles.'' It ordered the '^7^-
prosecution of Papists and other schismatics, the seizure of ' all such
preachers as with their families do not attend public worship,' the
fining of all magistrates and heritors for conventicles held on their
property, with power to recover the fines from the culprits, the
licensing of teachers and chaplains, the arrangement of rewards
for informers, and the imposing of fines on remiss magistrates. A
census was ordered of all who had taken the oaths of allegiance and
supremacy ; and special courts were commissioned to see the laws
executed in every shire.'' The inquisition began with the summoning
of heritors and ministers in the west to confess their recent dealings
with the intercommuned. The ministers not compearing were out-
lawed. Some gentlemen, refusing to declare on oath, were held
as confessed, and sent to prison for months till their friends paid
their fines. With such phenomenal activity of the law-officers,
military, and .spies, the outlaws and conventiclers practised wariness.
Their gatherings were held in remotest places, and the sacraments
were even dispensed by night. Welsh was untiring, even preaching
in the middle of the frozen Tweed, that ' two nations might dispute
his crime. "^ His friends paid dearly for their attachment to him —
Durham of Largo being mulcted in/ 1200 Scots for resetting him,
' Wodrow, ii. 455-7 ; Law, Memoirs, 85 ; Fraser, Mem. in Select Biof;., ii. 344.
^ ' Lauderdale's plan against Schism' : Wodro-M MSS., xliii. (Rob. iii. 3. 16), 15.
' Aldis, List, 2081 ; Wodrow, ii. 318 note. ^ Wodrow, ii. 320, 323.
" Kirkton, 372.
256 THE COVENANTERS
and 2500 merks for attending his preaching twice. Veitch held a
conventicle of four thousand persons on the Blue Cairn on Lauder-
dale's land in defiance of him on 26th April 1676. In the wild
uplands on the Borders, Welsh, Arnot, Semple, and Scott found a
temporary asylum until the long arm of the law reached them.
Others crossed to Ireland.
Convention of On 20th May, some expelled clergy, fifty or sixty in number,
clergy, May Stealthily assembled in Edinburgh to discuss the situation.
1676. Alexander Forrester, minister of St. Mungo, was clerk of the
meeting, which assumed the function of a Commission of the Church,
and sat about a week transacting business competent to a Church
court, regarding preachers, correspondence with the disunited
portions of the Church, and the proposals of the Government.
Forrester and his minutes fell into the hands of the authorities,' when
Forrester was apprehended for the second time, after he had served
a term of imprisonment in St. Andrews and on the Bass Rock.
Among the preachers at this time summoned by the Council for
intrusion was Hugh Campbell in Muirkirk, whom we shall after-
wards find trying to overcome the scruples of John Brown of
Priesthill.-
james Kiikton Jamcs Kirkton, formerly minister at Mertoun, and now at the
trepanned. hom for refusing to be indulged minister at Carstairs and for
conventicling at Cramond, had a singular experience in June 1676
which he records in his History.^' At noon, on the streets of Edin-
burgh, he was politely accosted by a gentleman and inveigled into
a house, to find that he was trepanned into a dungeon by the
notorious Captain Carstairs. Kirkton's friends, having traced him,
arrived at the nick of time, when Carstairs, who had just drawn his
pistol, found himself in grips and grounded by the more athletic
outlaw. Kirkton's brother-in-law, Robert Baillie of Jerviswood, and
others separated the combatants. Carstairs rushed to Hatton to
complain of this rescue of a fanatic preacher, and to inflame the
Council. Sharp demanded vengeance, lest punishers of disorder
' Wodrow, ii. 355. - Ibid., 323. ^ Hist., 367.
. SCHEMES OF LEIGHTON AND LAUDERDALE 257
should be discouraged. The rescuers were apprehended. At their
trial a warrant, fabricated after the fracas, purporting to be Carstairs'
order for the seizure of Kirkton, was produced. That settled the
case. For deforcing an officer of the Crown Baillie was fined .^^500
sterling and sentenced to lie in prison till he paid it ; while his
two comrades were also heavily fined and sent to prison. For four
months Baillie lay in the cells in Edinburgh and Stirling Castles
before he was released. Carstairs was encouraged in his villainy by
receiving 3000 merks out of Baillie's fine.' Baillie was more than
ever a marked man, being considered a bird out of a bad nest — a
descendant of Knox and the son-in-law of Wariston. Kirkton was
specially marked for punishment, his name heading the list of fifteen
intercommuned ministers proclaimed on 3rd August 1676.
To render the punitive work of the Government more effective The Scots
, . . , , 1 T 1 ..... Star Chamber.
a royal commission, dated 20th July, was received instituting a
' Committee of Public Affairs," consisting of the two archbishops,
Argyll, Mar, Murray, Linlithgow, Seaforth, Kinghorn, Dundonald,
Elphinstone, Lord Privy Seal, President, Treasurer- Depute, Advo-
cate, Justice-Clerk, Lord Collington, or any three of them ; Sharp to
be vice-chairman, with plenary powers, ' to do all things necessary
to his Majesty's service."'' It was another ' Star Chamber' instituted
to engineer the persecution.
The biographer of the Lord Advocates had justification for Forgotten
asserting: 'On taking office [in 1677] Mackenzie found the jails full '"^ ""^'
of wretches whom Nisbet had left in chains, because he had neither
been bribed to prosecute them nor bribed to release them.' ^ Prisoners,
for whom no victuals were provided, lay long untried, often forgotten.
This is proved by the petition of seven untried conventiclers who had
lain in Stirling Tolbooth for fifteen months and now sought liberation,
being, they confessed, ' poor old decrepit bodies . . . poor creatures
with wives and families. We have been many times at the point of
starving, and had long ere now died for want, if we had not been
' Wodrow, ii. 328 ; Kirkton, 370; Burnet, Hist., ii. 114.
^ Wodrow, ii. 324. ^ Omond, The Lord Advocates, i. 213.
VOL. II. 2 K
258 THE COVENANTERS
supplied by the charity of other people.' The Council disponed them
to Captain Maitland for serfdom or military service in France, and
they were smuggled away at midnight in fetters and guarded by
soldiery,' one being discharged because he appeared to be dying.
In the early winter of 1676, many clergy and laity, including ladies,
were prosecuted, denounced, fined, or sent to prison till they found
cautioners for their fines, among the number being Widow Guthrie,
relict of the minister of Tarbolton, and Bessie Muir, relict of
Alexander Dunlop of Paisley, mother of Principal Dunlop.'-
Kerof A fellow-prisoner in Stirling with Baillie in August 1676 was
ersan . Robert Ker of Kersland, Dairy, who had been in various jails since
1670. After Rullion Green he escaped to Utrecht, whence he
returned in the end of 1669 to see his estate enjoyed by General
Drummond, and to fall into the hands of the Government through the
treachery of Cannon of Mardrogat, the informer. The sufferings of his
family were also grievous. In 1677 his punishment was relaxed and
liberty allowed to him. He was once more taken and thrown into
Glasgow Tolbooth, from which he was rescued by the people, when
a g-reat fire broke out in Glasgow. After consoling himself with the
society and sermons of the hill-preachers till August 1678, he saw the
prudence of withdrawing to Utrecht, where he died in 1680.*
Donaldson of Very mercilcss was the action of the authorities in the case of
agety. Donaldson, the model minister of Dalgety, at this time resident in
Inverkeithing. For daring to have a service in his own house for his
family and friends, Donaldson, an old man, was carried from his bed
to Linlithgow prison and immured there for a year without being
prosecuted.*
Exiles in Not Satisfied with harassing his subjects at home, the King
molested them abroad, first sending a communication, and then Sir
William Temple, to the Court of Holland to demand the expulsion of
the Scots exiles. Colonel Wallace, and the ministers, MacWard and
Brown. This the States declined to do, and at the same time
' Wodrow, ii. 342. ^ Ibid., 335.
' Ibid., 330, 331, 361 ; M'Crie, VeiMt, 423. "i Wodrow, ii. 343.
Ilollanci.
SCHEMES OF LEIGHTON AND LAUDERDALE 259
testified that the three Scots had been good and faithful citizens, who
had proved their ' zeal and affection for the advancement of the truth.''
With all these hardships and sufferings on the part of a large Assaults on
section of the people, one is surprised to find so few records of''^"'
^ ^ ' tr ministers.
reprisals or revenge taken upon the persons or property of those
blamable for the almost universal coercion and its baleful results.
Henry Knox, Episcopal incumbent in Dunscore, complained that on
the 28th December six or seven persons did burglariously invade his
manse and, after maltreating him and his wife, stole his furniture.
Somewhat similar assaults took place at Gargunnock and Abbotsrule,
but no particular sect of the dissenters is specified as the burglars,
who, after all, may have been the too common dissenters from the
principles of honesty. The ministers got compensation. The heritors
were summoned to the Council and ordered to assess themselves in
5000 and 6000 merks respectively for the ministers of Dunscore and
Gargunnock. -
The reader would be surfeited by a hundredth part of the record
of the activities of the servants of the Crown in carrying out Lauder-
dale's policy for stamping out disregard for the law by exhausting the
resources of suspects, who at this time were reckoned to be seven-
teen thousand in number.'
Early in the year 1677, a convention of Presbyterian ministers of Assembly of
different parties met in Edinburgh to discuss the situation and to parUes'Te??
consider terms of union of indulged and non-indulged, so that peace
might prevail among the nonconformists. Blackadder proposed
fasting and humiliation for the sin of Erastianism as the first step, a
suggestion disagreeable to a section that would have deposed Wel-
wood, Cameron, and a third preacher, probably Kid, for their
extreme views on separation from the indulged. Welwood and
Cameron declined the jurisdiction of this irregular assembly at the
time. One result of the conference was the expression of a general
feeling that indulged and non-indulged should work harmoniously
' M'Crie, VeiU/i, 367 ; VVodrow, ii. 344.
' Wodrow, ii. 341. ' Dodds, Ft/iy years, 209.
?6o
THE COVENANTERS
James Fraser
of Brea.
Fraser's
opinions.
together, preaching where occasion offered, and that ministers should
not be ordained to congregations which were not in a position to give
a call and make proper provision for their pastors. The fugitive
missioners were thus discounted.' Differences had separated parties
too far to allow a millennial concord to be struck at a single conference.
At the end of January another famous field-preacher was in the
toils. This outlaw, James Fraser, son of Sir James Fraser of Brea,
of noble extraction, born in 1639, was attracted to the side of the
persecuted after his conversion, and considered it his duty to take
licence from the nonconformists in 1670. In his Memoirs, one of the
most extraordinary products of this age, he narrates how, after he
married a pious widow, who died in 1676, the Bishop of Moray per-
secuted him out of pique. He took to field-preaching, and, ignoring
citations, was denounced and intercommuned. Through the treachery
of a maidservant he was apprehended in the house of a relative in
Edinburgh during family worship, on Sabbath night, 28th January.
Next day Sharp and Hatton, in Council, tried to trap him into
admissions punishable by death. He was wary. They sentenced
him to the Bass, where he arrived, along with James Mitchell, on ist
February." His experiences as recorded afford a very painful picture
of prison life on the Bass — petty tyrannies, bad food and worse water,
oatmeal mixed with foul water or melted snow and dry fish, vindictive
usage, gifts stolen, warders blaspheming in order to irritate, de-
bauching the female servants and blaming the pious prisoners, and
other horrors.^ During his stay here for two years and a half
Fraser found leisure to study and write a Treatise on Justifying
Faith, which maintained novel and uncommon views on the subject.
These becomino- known to his friends gave rise to much dissatisfac-
tion and disputation long before the work was published. Fraser's
absurd conclusion was that Christ had died for all — for the elect that
they might obtain superlative blessedness, and also for the reprobate
that they might justly receive a more awful judgment. The re-
' Six Saints, i. 208 ; Wodrow, ii. 346.
^ Fraser, Memoirs: Select Biog., ii. 81-370.
^ Ibid., 344.
SCHEMES OF LEIGHTON AND LAUDERDALE 261
suscitation of Eraser's opinions by some ministers in the Cameronian
and Antiburgher denominations in the seventeenth century gave rise to
angry debates and resulted in the deposition of one disciple. Eraser was
liberated in August 1679 on a bond, but his troubles were not over/
Confined in the rock-prison at the same time as Peden and Eraser Prisoners on
were James Drummond, chaplain to the Marchioness 01 Argyll,
Patrick Anderson, minister of Walston, Hog, minister of Kiltearn,
John M'Gilligen, minister of Fodderty, Robert Traill, minister at
Cranbrook, John Law, minister of Campsie, John Macaulay, Robert
Ross, and William Bell, three preachers, and George Scot from
Scotstarvet, at first as stiff a lay Covenanter as any, but latterly the
recalcitrant receiver of a shipload of banished fellow-conventiclers."
Blackadder and Welsh, accompanied by their bodyguard, marched
about on their rousing mission. The former left a graphic descrip-
tion of an immense conventicle at Eckford in Teviotdale, where
Welsh, Riddell, Dickson, Rae, and he officiated.' It is a pity to
mutilate the exquisite story by an epitomised paraphrase. A multi-
tude from all quarters swarmed on to a mead through which the
Whitadder flows. On preparation day, Saturday, tokens were given a sacramental
11 J conventicle.
to mtendmg communicants. On Sabbath morn three tables, covered
with linen cloths, bore the Communion cups and elements. A bright
sun glorified a cloudless blue sky. The slopes around were clustered
with over three thousand believers waiting their turn to partake
of the holy food. Though the God of Jacob was still their refuge,
these hunted Christians had a fence of steel in the hands of horse-
men round the feast, sentinels on the hilltops, and mounted scouts
patrolling the vicinity. They expected the rash young Earl of
Home and the Berwick militia to keep Home's threat to ride in and
' make their horses drink the communion wine and trample the sacred
elements under foot.' Aristocratic elders served the tables. Dickson's
theme was ' The Lord will provide.' ' Neither shall the Covenant of
' Hutchison, The Reformed Presbyterian Church in Scotland, 195 (Edin., 1893).
'^ In transporting them to the plantations, Scot and his wife perished at sea : of. M'Crie
The Bass Rock, 169.
^ Bliickadder, Atetn., 183-9 ; Blackadder wore a Highland plaid to conceal his identity.
262 THE COVENANTERS
My peace be removed.' was Blackadder's consoling subject next day.^
In such inspiring circumstances the rapturous host saw Heaven's
King reflected in the beauty of hoUness upon them, and as each night
they retired to their various resting-places guarded by armed men,
they experienced a sense of Divine Power ' encamping round about
them.' Their earthly ruler was forgotten. In the middle of June
Captain Buchan captured eighteen persons holding a conventicle at
Culross with a faith which disdained precautions." For releasing the
prisoners the too lenient magistrates of Culross got into trouble.
Lauderdale, having complained to the King of the number and
insolence of the conventicles, received the King's authority for seizing
the principal ministers and laymen, and bringing them to condign
punishment. If he had not local forces to effect this, he was to
Conventicle temporise until succour should come from Ireland.^ One of these
conventicles was held in the parish of Girvan under the presidency
of Welsh and other four preachers on 21st October. There seven
thousand persons assembled and two thousand took the communion,
after having engaged to abjure the orthodox clergy and to ' pursue
the ends of the Solemn League and Covenant.' The Government
spy also reported to Lauderdale that Welsh not only preached rank
treason, but presided over a Presbytery that made cautious prepara-
tions for a rising and a rabbling of the clergy.* In order to quell
this incipient rebellion Lauderdale made arrangements in December
with Viscount Granard to hold himself in readiness to transport horse,
foot, and artillery into Galloway on demand. Instructions for hunting
down Scottish nonconformists led to the apprehension of William
Douglas, a preacher.^ Douglas was betrayed in Belfast by Roderick
Mansell, a Government spy: and of both these worthies Lord Granard
wrote : ' Douglas is a mountebank and almost as great a knave as his
prompter Mansel, who has treated me with so many and so great
aspersions that I must fly to your Grace's justice for reparation.'^
' Genesis xxii. 14 ; Isaiah liv. lo. - VVodrow, ii. 363.
^ Coventry to Lauderdale, 19th November 1677 : Ormonde MSS., iv. 62.
* Jbid., 69. 0 Ibid., 75, 88. "^ /bid., 94.
SCHEMES OF LEIGHTON AND LAUDERDALE 263
Welsh and others held a great conventicle at Maybole, which had Conventicle
a more practical consequence. According to a Government report ^' ' ^y^oie-
' a great many swords were sold ' at the autumn fair in Maybole,
because it was determined that the people should rise if they were
further provoked.^ From a spy, the Government had information
of a similar character, which Lauderdale judiciously forwarded to
Hamilton, who was suspected of complicity with the rebels. The
information bore that the hillmen, in October 1676, had signed a
paper asserting it to be lawful and agreeable to the subscribers to
take up arms — their likeliest leader being Hamilton ; and that early
in 1677 arms had been imported from Holland and concealed, for
which subscriptions in London had been raised.- Hamilton was an
opportunist and not strictly veracious ; and in these uncertain days it
is not surprising to find the Crown relieving him of his commission in
the militia. A deeper estrangement from Lauderdale was the result.
Long before Cameron's day ' some hotheads were for taking the
sword and redeeming of themselves from the hands of oppressors,'
but these spirited Scots appear to have been kept in check by the
calmer counsels of men of the type of Eraser, who considered retalia-
tion unwarrantable.^
Lauderdale again visited Scotland in the summer of 1677. His Lauderdale
intriguing wife had one daughter marrying Lome and another ready to '" S'^°"^"<^'
be 'a forced cast upon Atholl.' The great man's influence was soon
felt. That the malcontents might be thrown off their guard a third
Indulgence was mooted.^ A hard case was that of Sir Alexander
Bruce of Broomhall, a conformist, too considerate to his tenantry,
who in July was fined in ^100 for the conventicling of his tenantry,
whom he had not bound over.®
On 2nd August the Council published the proclamation of 8th
June 1674 in more stringent terms, demanding a bond from both
proprietors and tenants subscribed by the former.*^ The heritors of
1 Rec. Off., State Papers (Charles ll.), 397, 398 : 5th November 1677.
2 Perth to Hamihon : Hist. MSS. Com. Rep., xi. App. vi. 156.
3 Select Biog., ii. 325, 326. -i Hist. MSS. Com. Rep., xv. viii. 224, 226.
^ Fountainhall, Hist. Not., i. 168 ; Wodrow, ii. 360. " Wodrow, ii. 364.
264
THE COVENANTERS
Heritors
oppose the
policy of the
Crown.
Sir George
Mackenzie of
Rosehaugh.
Ayr, met in conference, Loudoun presiding, resolved to inform the
Council that the demand was impracticable, and that leniency was the
only cure of the disorders. The heritors of Hamilton took a similar
stand. Hamilton himself informed Queensberry that the Act was
'hardly practicable.' ' In August about forty ministers, indulged and
non-indulged, were summoned for breach of the regulations and Acts,
but only one is recorded to have compeared and defended himself.
He acknowledged attending a conventicle in his own parish in order
to challenge its legality. The plea was successful and the suspect
was dismissed."
In October the Council ordered the release of eight prisoners,
including Peden, Hog, M'Gilligen, Ker of Kersland, and Eraser of
Brea, on certain conditions — Peden being ordered into exile. There
were relays of prisoners to take their places in the noisome vaults."
Sir John Nisbet was forced to resign the office of Lord Advocate,
and George Mackenzie, on 23rd August 1677, got his place* —
' By merit raised to that bad eminence.'
A recent writer has well classed him with sanguinary Jeffreys and
'Weir of Hermiston' as one of 'The Terrors of the Law.''' Mac-
kenzie had distinguished himself as a fearless pleader, even daring to
oppose Lauderdale, who afterwards showed a preference for Mac-
kenzie for reasons of state more probably than of love. A fiery
temper, a bold, biting tongue, absolutist views, and expressed loyalty
qualified this young advocate for the post of adviser and draughtsman
of laws for the party of extermination. He began by emptying the
crowded jails of those either too poor or too conscientious to bribe his
predecessor. His method was not always just or merciful. Two
men, who had been confined for six years untried, he brought to the
gallows on the most nebulous evidence.*^ He promptly earned his
nickname — ' The Bluidy Mackenzie.'
1 Hist. MSS. Cotn. Rep., XV. viii. 222 ; Wodrow, ii. 368.
" Wodrow, ii. 348. ^ Ibid., 356, 361,
* Omond, Lord Advocates, ii. 200-34; Hist. Not., i. 174.
<> Francis Watt, The Terrors of the Law, 1902. " Omond, 213 ; Hist. Not., i. 180.
SCHEMES OF LEIGHTON AND LAUDERDALE 265
Early in October, an affair occurred whose importance was not Affair at
underestimated by those seeking fresh incitements to suppress the
nonconformists. The outlawed John Balfour of Kinloch stole home
to meet his friend and neighbour, Alexander Hamilton of Kinkel,
Robert Hamilton, son of Sir Thomas Hamilton of Preston, and other
conventiclers. Captain Carstairs and a dozen troopers rode up to
capture the meeting. A boisterous Irish soldier, called Garret, took
a trial shot, to which the defenders replied by a volley which
brought down Garret and put his comrades to flight.' The episode
was exaggerated to the injury of those molested. As a corrective
to these rumours, Hamilton informed Oueensberry that 'there was
onely thrie soldiers that were beaten and disarmed."- Carstairs had
a similar experience of deforcement in April 1678, when invading
a minister's house in Kintore. For this scuffle the two Flemings
of Balbuthy, elder and younger, were tried and acquitted." These
attacks irritated an already nervous and retaliatory peasantry, and at
the same time created periodic hysteria in official circles. In October Hysteria in
there was an alarm in Edinburgh over the news invented by the Earl o"^"^' ""^"^'^s,
& -'in 1677.
of Nithsdale and coloured by the bishops, that the westland Whigs,
armed to the teeth, and equipped with Irish horses, were on the eve
of rising. Dundonald informed Lauderdale that the manse of Tor-
bolton had been forced and the minister threatened with death if he
preached again.* The Council instructed Glencairn, Dundonald, and
Ross to convene the gentlemen of Ayr and Renfrew, to take order
for the extinction of factious courses in ' the great seminaries of
rebellion ' in these counties. The gentlemen met in Irvine on 2nd
November, and came to three resolutions : that it was not within the
compass of their power to suppress conventicles : that toleration of
Presbytery alone would restore peace : that the toleration must be
similar to that granted to England and Ireland.*
The three conveners mutilated the manly resolutions, and com-
' Wodrow, ii. 371. - Hist. MSS. Com. Rep.., xv. viii. 225.
^ Reg. Sec. Cone, Dec, 4th April 167S, 43.
* Laud. Pap., iii. 88, 24th October 1677. ' Wodrow, ii. 375.
VOL. II. 2 L
266 THE COVENANTERS
pressed them into a phrase : 'It was not in their power to quiet the
disorders.' Lord Advocate Mackenzie made a worse paraphrase :
' That the peace could not be secured without abrogating Episcopacy ' ;
and this he supplemented by an even worse corollary : ' The King and
Council considered this as a sacrificing the Laws to the Humours and
Fashions of private men . . . and therefore the Highlanders were
sent in to secure the Peace.' ' Lauderdale informed the King that
the Highland chieftains were ready to march with their redshanks to
nip the rebellion in the bud, and he asked for instructions."
Scotiand under The King replied, nth December, placing Scotland under
martid law in j^^^j-jij^i j^^^ ^nd, for the protection of the Crown and of the Estab-
lished Church, authorising a muster of English troops on the Borders
as well as on the northern shores of Ireland, a gathering of the High-
landers at Stirling, the embodiment of the militia, the disarmament
of the disaffected, and other military steps. The instructions issued
by the Council simply condensed the old repressive statutes and
handed over army, magistrates, and subjects to the mercy of a Com-
mittee, consisting of Atholl, Mar, Glencairn, Murray, Linlithgow,
Perth, Wigtown, Strathmore, Airlie, Caithness, and Ross, with full
powers, any five to be a quorum, who were ordered to meet in
Glasgow on 26th January. The day after Christmas, the ' Com-
mission for raising the Highlanders' was signed.'^ Hamilton ex-
pressed the view then held that this was a royal charter for the
plantation of the Lowlands by Gaels.* It was nothing short of a
licence to freebooters to devour at pleasure and be indemnified if
blood were spilt, and of a charge to bankrupts in uniform to conduct
an unholy crusade. Worse still, the right reverend fathers in God —
the bishops — met and formulated ten suggestions for the suppression
of conventicles, which, for drastic rigour, better became a cave of
bandits than a conclave of religious men, the cruelest suggestion
being, that the forces should ' move slowly.' ^
» Vindication, 12. - Mackenzie, iW««o/rj, 329.
3 IVodrow MSS. (Advocates' Library), xcix. ; Wodrow, ii. 376, 377, 379, i^T-
< Hist. MSS. Com. Rep., xv. viii. 230. ' Laud. Pap., iii. 95.
SCHEMES OF LEIGHTON AND LAUDERDALE 267
The tiery cross soon sped among the loyal clans. The Lowlands Muster of
were the Eldorado of the Gaels. They termed the Whigs ' Figs,' ^os^ 1678^"
probably also recalling the sweetest fruit they knew of — an article of
commerce then heavily taxed. ^ Joy prevailed in all quarters favourable
to Prelacy ; but while visions of wealth glorified the castles and shiel-
ings of the north, a horror of the naked barbarians struck the southern
Whigs and people generally. The isolated clergy complained that
the upper classes were migrating to the Capital. A ravenous joy
possessed the associates of Lauderdale, expectant of forfeitures, ' so
that on Valentine's Day, instead of drawing mistresses, they drew
estates.'" Oueensberry informed Hamilton that 'the offishers off the
whoill [militia regiment of Dumfries] ar the scum of the countray
and all beggars save 2 or 3, and most overjoyt att the honourabell
imployment.'^ The sordid vision came to Captain John Graham of
Claverhouse and Claypots, in Holland, and he, having resigned his
commission in the Dutch army in December 1677, also hastened home,
hoping to cover Claverhouse with glory and to fill Claypots with
Whig gold. Sir Walter Scott probably had good reasons for making Return of
Edith Bellenden say of Claverhouse, ' " Root-and-branch work " is the ^^^l" °"^^*
mildest of his expressions. The unhappy Primate was his intimate
friend and early patron.' ^ More patriotic, or at least more sympathetic,
citizens were deserting the woeful country. Lauderdale promptly
counteracted the threatened exodus to London of nobles and persons
of property, who thus hoped to enlighten the King and his advisers
regarding the true state of affairs. On 3rd January, Lauderdale,
President of the Council, published a proclamation prohibiting all men
between sixteen and sixty years of age leaving the kingdom without
a licence, on pain of treason.^ To test the loyalty of Hamilton, orders
were sent to the gentlemen of Lanarkshire to muster when required
by the Committee.*' After Rothes got the heritors of Fife to sign the
bond obliging all the inhabitants to keep the peace, Lauderdale re-
turned the instrument along with the draft of a more stringent Bond
' M'Crie, ^eiUA, 519. 2 Burnet, ii. 146. ' //t'st. MSS. Com. Rep., XI. vi. 161.
* Old Mortality, chap. x. » Rc^. See. Cone, Acta, 554. " Wodrow, ii. 381.
>6S
THE COVENANTERS
Protests of
loyal heritors
against ' The
Black Bond.'
Lauderdale's
oath.
The Black
Bond.
binding them to refrain from intercourse with the nonconformists, and
to apprehend them.' The Ayrshire heritors sent a deputation to the
Privy Council to assure them of the quietness of the shire, the absence
of conventicles in those parishes provided with indulged ministers,
their own personal loyalty, and the impropriety of unloosing ' so
inhumane and barbarous a crew ' of spoilers upon the land.^ Implacable
Lauderdale refused to see the deputation. With Shylock he might
say, ' I would have my bond.' The influence of Hamilton, Blantyre,
and Carmichael was felt in Lanarkshire, where of the 2900 heritors and
feuars all, save nineteen, refused to take the bond until they were
coerced by the militia. Oueensberry informed Hamilton that it was
otherwise in Dumfriesshire, where all, ' save some few pitifull persons
inconsiderable both as to parts and interests,' had signed. Although
Queensberry had not yet subscribed, he had ordered the imprison-
ment and removal of his offending tenantry, of whom he wrote, ' its
remarkable most off thes ar Annandale people and knou no moir off
religion or civell deportment than bruts.'^ When Lauderdale learned
how ' the gentlemen looked on and would no nothing ' to make the
latest legislation effective, according to Burnet, ' this put Duke
Lauderdale in such a frenzy, that at Council table he made bare his
arm above his elbow, and swore by Jehovah he would make them all
enter those bonds.'*
These submissions grudgingly given were merely nominal, and
expressive of the universal horror at the thought of a descent of ' the
Irishes.' In May, Queensberry reported that hill-sermons were never
so numerous, at which ' they thunder anathemas against the blak-
bonders (as they call us), and ane maid his repentence publicly
Sunday last for tacking 't, befoir Mr. Welsh wood chrissen his child.''
To the consistent Covenanter The Black Bond was an instrument of
Satan, proving the infidelity of the subscriber to God and Christ.*
The Highland Host mustered at Stirling on 24th January 1678.
' Wodrow, ii. 382. 2 Ibid., 388.
' Hist. MSS. Com. Rep., xi. vi. 159 ; ,\v. viii. 233 ; Wodrow, ii. 397.
♦ Hist., ii. 145. 6 Hist. MSS. Com. Rep., xi. vi. 162.
» For 'Black Bond and Highland Host,' cf. Wodrow MSS., .xxxvi. (Rob. iii. 3. 11. 17)-
SCHEMES OF LEIGHTON AND LAUDERDALE 269
Increased by recrulars and militia, and equipped with artillery, March of the
111 , . " r ^ ■ r • , Highlanders.
shackles, and instruments of torture, this force representative ot
heathenism and religion, eight thousand strong, marched to Glasgow
and Ayr in search of the imaginary foe. Ploughmen in the furrows
saw the legalised marauders and the exterminating Commission pass
by. The ingenious Mackenzie was left behind to fabricate novel
legislative measures couched in damnatory language ; and truly
' That crooked Vulcan will the bellows blow
Till he '11 set all on fire.'
Employers were now discharged from receiving servants or tenants
who had not taken the bond ; and to secure the public peace the
strange device of 'law-burrows,' or caution given that nothing wrong
would be done, was resorted to. Mackenzie, in vindicating the
Government, declared this to be the ordinary surety whereby 'any
private man may force another by the law to secure him against all
Prejudices from his Men, Tennents, and Servants, and others of his
Command, Out-hounding and Ratihabition.'' Those who refused Refusers of
the Black Bond were required to give pledges that they and all their g^^
dependents would keep the ecclesiastical laws on pain of two years'
valued rent." To these unprecedented demands many great land-
lords and influential citizens — Cassillis, Loudoun, Crawford, Balmerino,
Melville, Newark, Callendar, Kilsyth, Roxburgh, Cochrane, Cathcart,
Bargany, Cessnock, Kilbirnie, Montgomery, and others — refused to
yield, and were denounced as traitors. Nothing was left to chance.
It was the priestly function of the armed Commission to pursue every
living soul into a state of revulsion from nonconformity. The clay-
more would produce uniformity.
The Gaels swept over south-west Scotland like a flood, and bore
away whatever they fancied. Every church was converted into an
armoury for discarded weapons, and the graveyard into a pound for
commandeered horses ; every cupboard was often searched and every
' Vindication, I2.
' Proclamations, nth Feb. and 14th Feb. : Aldis, List, 21 13; Wodrow, ii. 396, 400.
270 THE COVENANTERS
Effects of the sheaf devouied.^ Strange to relate, the Whigs grew facile as the
the Gaels. Israelites in Egypt. Goads of no kind — torture by hustling, blows,
robbery, arson, match — availed to change their humour and resolution
to give no ground for justifying the brutal policy of Lauderdale.
The unhindered caterans had no inducement to soil their blades
by cutting throats. There is no authentic record of atrocities com-
mitted, apart from the inevitable inconveniences of an enemy's visit.
Alexander Wedderburn, minister of Kilmarnock, was badly injured
by a blow from a Highlandman's musket. The author of A Hind
Let Loose says that it would require several large volumes to record
their barbarities ; but in his later Short Memorial, the charge is
minimised by the omission of the statement, ' by the sword of these
Burrios,' when he repeats this record : ' Many houses were then left
desolate in a winter flight, many lost their cattel and horses, and
some in seeking to recover them lost their lives, by the sword of
these Burrios.' " Wodrow published a statement of the losses incurred
in Ayrshire, as prepared by the heritors for transmission to the King,
and these amounted to nearly ^138,000 Scots. He also reckoned
that ^200,000 Scots might represent the losses in Ayrshire ; and from
this fact one can imagine what the total ' sufferings ' in the disaffected
area must have been. At the end of February, the Council saw the
necessity for recalling this punitive expedition, and the Gaels returned
loaded with loot, while Airlie and Strathmore were credited with
securing bags of money.^
King Charles The King in a letter of 26th March indicated approval of all this
the''e7editLn Savagery.* The bold Cassillis first complained to the Duke of
Monmouth, hoping through that channel to reach the royal ear
before he personally came to Court. In March, Cassillis, Hamilton,
Roxburgh, Haddington, Atholl, Perth, some other nobles, and ' fifty
gentlemen of quality,' including Sir John Cochrane and Lieutenant-
General Drummond, went up to London to complain of the miseries
' Atholl MSS., Hist. MSS. Com. Rep., xii. viii. 35 ; Wodrow AfSS., .\cix. 28.
■■* Hind, 190, 191 ; Memorial, 12 ; A True Narraiii'e . . . 167S: Published by Authority ;
Aldis, List, 2143; Wodrow, ii. 442 note.
' Kirktou, 391. ' Wodrow, ii. 432.
SCHEMES OF LEIGHTON AND LAUDERDALE 271
of Scotland. Charles would at first neither receive the petitions
nor the petitioners. He sent for representatives of the Council.
Lauderdale dispatched Murray, Collington, and Mackenzie to counter-
act his accusers. Mackenzie was no match for his brilliant rival,
Lockhart. The King- gave the petitioners audience, and demanded
their indictment in writing. They were not to be caught in such a
snare, and refused. Their stand augured ill for Lauderdale. But
that able tactician by a simple method outwitted his antagonists.
He persuaded the King to convene the Scots Estates on 26th June,
while these members were from home, and then cozened the
others who were left, who outnumbered the Hamilton party, as
five to one.
The King's letter to the Estates praised Lauderdale for his Meeting of
fidelity. The Parliament voted supply of ;i^ 1,800,000 Scots, for thejune'icys!'
maintenance of authority and an army — the cess to be payable in five
years. When Parliament, in replying to the King's letter, declared
that Lauderdale's ' manadgment of affairs in this convention hath
justifyed your Maiesties choice of him,' that astute diplomatist had
completely outwitted the Whigs. They had to face a new peril on
their return, for Lauderdale had the satisfaction of issuing a royal
warrant in May for the prosecution of murmurers against persons
in authority.^
Sharp had waited long enough for Mitchell's blood. He induced
Lauderdale to bring the prisoner from the Bass and send him to
the gallows.^ The Council, 6th December, instructed Sir George
Mackenzie, Mitchell's former counsel, to prosecute him afresh.
The accused petitioned for counsel. The advocates, remembering-
Mackenzie's dictum at Argyll's trial, that the defence of a traitor
was treason, refused to plead until they were licensed. John Ellis
and Lockhart undertook the defence. Sir Archibald Primrose of
Carrington, deprived of the post of Lord Register, now Justice
' IJurnct, ii. 147, 149 ; Wodrow, ii. 449, 453, 454, 490; Kirkton, 393 ; Aa. Pari. Scot., viii.
213-30 ; Hist. MSS. Com. Rep., xiu. ii. 49; xv. viii. 235, 236.
- Burnet, ii. 138.
272
THE COVENANTERS
General, with five judges, occupied the bench. Primrose narrated
Trial of James to Bumct what transpired. The trial began on 7th January with
7th January th^ indictment charging Mitchell with feloniously attempting to
1678. injure, demember, and murder an officer of the Crown, a bishop, and a
subject — offences punishable with death ; and further with associating
with traitors.' To be even with intriguing enemies, who had arranged
to perjure themselves at the trial. Primrose, with 'a most exquisite
malice,' sent to the counsel for the defender a copy of the pardon
minuted in the Council Record. Mitchell refused the libel, and
renounced his extorted confession. Lockhart forcibly pleaded that
an extra-judicial confession was inadmissible as evidence. A long
debate took place over the relevancy of the libel. The bench held
that the Lord Advocate had proved the presumption that Mitchell
had attempted assassination, and that his confession was judicial, and
could not be retracted. The case was sent to a jury. The box con-
tained selected soldiers and Anti-Covenanters.- Evidence was led.
The confession, signed by Mitchell, Rothes, Primrose, Nisbet, and
Hatton was produced. It was pleaded that it was extorted on promise
of life. According to Mackenzie's own work on the criminal law,
' a confession extorted by torture is in no law sufficient.' ^ Mackenzie,
too, had seen the torture and compulsion. Notwithstanding, Rothes,
Hatton, Lauderdale, Sharp, one after another, swore that they neither
gave nor heard of 'any assurance to the pannell for his life, and that
the pannell never sought any such assurance.' Rothes went further
and deponed, ' any expressions in any paper which may seem to infer
anything to the contrary, ... it hath been insert upon some mistake.'**
This was severe on the last discarded Lord Advocate and the Clerk
of Court.
Lockhart now showed his hand. He produced an authentic copy
of the minute and demanded the production of the original. Not to
be worsted, Mackenzie retorted that the record was closed ; that he
1 Wodrow, ii. 459 note; Burnet, ii. 140-3; Hist. Not., i. 182-6; Mackenzie, Memoirs,
327-9; M'Crie, Bass, 71 ; Cobbctt, State Trials, vi. 1207-62, 1270; Kirkton, 383 ; Just. I\ec.,
ii. App. 307.
■^ Hist. Not., i. 186. ^ Laws and Customs, 257. ■* Wodrnw, ii. 469.
Defences of
Mitchell.
SCHEMES OF LEIGHTON AND LAUDERDALE 273
was not bound to produce evidence for his opponents ; that the Lords
of Council had sworn that no assurance was given ; and that none
can grant remissions except the King. Lockhart, however, was per-
mitted to read the document, in which these words appeared : ' having
reteired a part with one of the s[ai]d Committy [^i.e. Rothes] He
[Mitchell] did then confesse vpon his knees he was the person, vpon
assurance given him by one of the Committy, as to his lyfe, who had
warrand from the Lord Commissioner and Council! to give the same.'^
Nicoll Sommervell, brother-in-law of Mitchell, offered to depone in
court that Sharp promised to get Mitchell spared if Sommervell went
and persuaded him to confess. Sharp denied this, and ' called it a
villanous lie.'^ Lauderdale rose in court and menacingly demanded
if the object of the defence was to make the councillors out to be Perjury of
perjurers.^ The judges, cowed, ruled that the defence was too late ^^^^J
in asking diligence, and that the alleged assurance was nugatory
owing to the depositions of the councillors. The court adjourned
for the night. The minutes were inspected and found as Lockhart
alleged. But unable to withdraw their perjury, they tried to explain
the minute as a promise of intercession. On loth January, the jury
returned a verdict finding Mitchell guilty as libelled, that he had
made a confession, but that there was no proof of any exculpation.*
He was condemned to be hanged on Friday, i8th January, in the
Grassmarket, and his goods and gear to be escheat.
Lauderdale now found himself in a quandary, caused by the fact Dilemma of
that the Earl of Kincardine had in his possession letters from Hatton,
written at the time the confession and promise were made, bearing
out the contention of Lockhart : all of which Lauderdale knew full well
and of which he had been reminded. Consequently, when a petition
was sent to the Council in favour of the doomed man, Lauderdale
favoured it. But Sharp, not to be cheated of his quarry, said that
such a pardon would be a further invitation to assassination. Ready
with an impious jest, the unfeeling Lauderdale retorted, ' Let Mitchell
' Heg: Sec. Cone.., Acta, June 1673-August 1678 ; 12th March 1674, pp. 63, 64.
' Wodrow, ii. 471. 3 Ibid.., iii. 162. ^ Just. Rec, ii. 339.
VOL. II. 2 M
274
THE COVENANTERS
Execution of
Mitchell,
iSth January
1678.
glorify God in the Grassmarket.' ' The lack of truthfulness, honour,
and trustworthiness in these high officers of state is almost incredible.
Primrose also gloated over the fact that in this trial his enemies con-
signed the ' damnation of their souls in his hands.' Sharp had already
been exposed. Hatton, afterwards impeached for his false testimony
by William Noble, member for Dumbartonshire, was humiliated,
and fined. ^ In his own writings Mackenzie left proofs of his unscrupu-
lous and untruthful nature, as when he recorded that ' the Registers
of Council were produced, but not the least mark of a promise was
made to appear by either.'* In his Memoirs he also avers that
'Sir George Lockhart refused to speak for Mitchell, being unwilling
to offend Lauderdale.' * With similar incorrectness he records that
'very famous witnesses . . . deposed that Mitchell was upon a new
plot to kill the same Archbishop'; and that he died 'glorying in
his crimes and recommending to others the szveetness of stick
assassinations' ^
Mitchell spent his last days writing his Testimony, and, on the
morning of the day on which he was executed, he wrote a letter in
which he testified : ' I wish heartily that this my poor life may
put an end to the persecution of the true members of Christ in this
kingdom ... by the perfidious prelates.' ° Through a crowd of
sympathising women Mitchell was taken to the gibbet. A rescue was
expected, and Major Johnson kept close to the prisoner to stab him
if the attempt was made. He met his fate bravely, and was thrown
over the ladder amid the rolling of drums. His unmutilated body was
removed under a velvet pall to the Magdalen Chapel.' ' Thus they
hunted this poor man to death,' wrote the diarist Fountainhall, ' a
prey not worthy of so much pains, trouble, and obloquie as they
incurred by it.''' The country was roused and incensed by the
sensational news of the trial and martyrdom of Mitchell and of the
perjury of the ' famous witnesses,' and many scribes were busy
■ Burnet, ii. 141. '■' Cohhtn, State Trials, \\. 1262-70; Scot. Hist. Misc., 1^4.
^ Vindication, 19. ■• Memoirs, 328. ^ Vindication, 19.
« Wodrow, ii. 473 ; Laing MSS., 269 ; ibid., 89, fol. 99 ; Hist. MSS. Com. Rep., Xlll. ii. 46.
' Hickes, Ravillac Rcdivivus, 53. ' Hist. Not., i. 185.
SCHEMES OF LEIGHTON AND LAUDERDALE 275
penning and circulating poems, pasquils, satires, and papers bringing
contempt upon the corrupt Government, and giving dark warnings
to Sharp.' Denunciation of the murderers of Mitchell was made an
article in the unwritten creed of the fugitive hillmen. The accusation
of murder was hissed into the ears of the dying Primate on Magus
Moor.
The Privy Council never rested from their infamous work. The Punishment
noisome jails were emptied to be filled again with prisoners, including" ^ '^^'
children, caught at the ever-increasing conventicles, and left in the
cells without being charged till health gave way. Alexander Ross
came to Edinburgh on tutorial business, and was clapt into prison with-
out a reason for four months.^ James Webster, afterwards minister
in Edinburgh, for holding a private prayer meeting in Dundee, was
kept praying in jail there for eighteen months, in spite of the in-
demnity applicable in his case.^ George Hume of Kimmerghame and
his wife, Lady Ayton, were imprisoned for three months in the Castle
of Edinburgh for being married by an unauthorised minister.* James
Lawson, a boy conventicler of fourteen years of age, was liberated ;
Alexander Anderson, aged sixteen, was banished. These were not
uncommon cases.^ Ex-Provost Sir James Stewart, old and infirm,
was also released.
Consignments of men, women, and boys were kept waiting their Transportation
turn to be shipped off to the East Indies to be sold as slaves." Peden ° p"^°""^-
was one of sixty-nine prisoners marched down to Leith harbour into
the 'Si. Michael of Scarborough,' Captain Edward Johnston, all
consigned to Ralph Williamson in London for transportation. The
prescient Peden declared there was never a ship built that would take
him to Virginia. At Gravesend, Williamson did not appear, and the
skipper of the convict ship, expecting a gang of rogues, refused to
take the holy men off Johnston's hands. The latter released them,
and gaily they tramped away to Scotland.'
' Laing MSS., Mitchell's Ghost : Mimes Mitcheliani, etc., Nos. 148, 149, 150, 151, 152.
2 Wodrow, ii. 475. ■' Ibid., 484. ' Ibid., 480.
'' Reg. Sec. Cone, Dec, 178, 2nd January 1679 ! Wodrow, ii. 484. ^ Hist. Not., i. 204.
' Reg. Sec. Cone, Dec, 172, 12th December 1678 ; Six Saints, 52, 53.
276
THE COVENANTERS
Scuflle at
Whitekirk.
Blackadder's
conventicle in
Irongray
parish.
A conventicle on the hills of Whitekirk on 5th May was attacked
by Ensign Maitland and some soldiers from the Bass, who were
repelled, leaving one of their number, John Hogg, dead. Of some
men afterwards apprehended, James Learmont, a chapman, and
William Temple were tried and condemned, the former to be hanged
on the 27th September in the Grassmarket and the latter to be
transported.^ Mackenzie, with his usual inaccuracy, calls the man
executed 'George,' whereas George was acquitted. Learmont's
defence was that he was unarmed and innocent — a plea which the
Crown met with the charge of accession to murder. This incident
gave Mackenzie ground for the following statement in his Vindication :
' As to the sending away People to the Plantations, it is answered
that none were sent away, but such as were taken at Bothwell Bridge
or in Argyle's Rebellion.'^ The Council, on i6th January 1679,
informed Lauderdale that several were shipped to the plantations.*
Among notable conventicles held in 1678 those conducted by
Welsh and Blackadder at Meiklewood and Skeoch Hill were remark-
able for numbers and for fervour. Blackadder describes the march
of fully armed and mounted gentlemen from Lanarkshire down
Enterkin Pass into Nithsdale and on to the Vale of Cairn or Cluden
in Irongray, near Dumfries. Fourteen thousand persons assembled
and remained for three days, the Communion Season, as it was called.
The services were held and the Sacraments dispensed in the lone,
bracken-clad amphitheatre of Skeoch Hill, where on a slope a mass of
rough stones, still visible, formed a Communion-table and pulpit, and
four rows of stones afforded seats for the communicants. While
Blackadder, Welsh, Arnot, and Dickson in turn lectured, preached,
and dispensed the Bread of Life, alert sentinels were posted on every
coign of vantage to guard against surprise ; and Earlston at the
head of the Galloway Horse stood ready for every emergency. The
timid garrisons from afar spied the convention, which was too strong
to be disturbed.* In September Colonel Strother requested Lauder-
' Wodrow, ii. 477-9 ; AM. MSS., 23251, fol. 96. - Pages 1 1, 20. •' Wodrow, iii. 24.
■* Letter, 23rd August 1678: State Papers {Chax\ts u.),y)t; Blackadder, i)/««oi>j, 197-203.
SCHEMES OF LEIGHTON AND LAUDERDALE 277
dale to send troops to the Borders to suppress Welsh's party of horse,
which had lately shot his cousin Marly, and Carr of Cherrytrees,^ So
far north as Forgandenny, Stewart of Ballechin and some Highland
soldiers scattered a conventicle and shot Andrew Brodie, wright, near
Culteuchar Hill in October."
Lauderdale was the fountainhead of power, and, as Dr. Matthew
M'Kail at the time graphically wrote : ' In judgment a dog cannot
move his tongue against him ... he values the Episcopal Clergy as
little as the Presbyterians when it comes in competition with the
King's supremacy.' In consequence of this, self-defence became an
article of an outlaw's faith, and M'Kail reported, 'There is many a
man in Galloway, if he hath but two cows, he will sell one cow for
a pair of pistols.' ^ The saints had greater need of them than ever.
In a letter from Edinburgh it is stated: 'There is invented (as is invention of
alleged) by the famous bishop of Galloway [Paterson] a certain screw "™'^"^"'*-
to couple their thumbs together by pairs to disable them from defensive
or offensive war.'* Worse still, on 23rd September, a captain's
commission for a troop of horse was given to John Graham of Claver-
house, and soon the relentless harriers of the Whigs would be in the
southern fields.^
At this crisis eight bishops met, not for prayer, but to commission
the Primate, Sharp, to visit Lauderdale and concert still sterner
measures for annihilating the Covenanters. *
' 15th September : Add. MSS., 23251, fol. 99.
2 Martyr Graves of Scotland., 215.
^ State Papers (Charles 11.), 396.
^ M'Kail to Adams, i6th November 1678 : State Papers (Charles n.), 408.
' Tevry, John Graltam, 38.
^ 23rd November 1678, Letter of Sharp to Lauderdale : Laing MSS., 7S4.
2-fi
THE COVENANTERS
CHAPTER XXV
THE EXIT OF SHARP
Scotland's
curse in 1679.
The harrying
of William
Veitch.
Scotland had reached the nadir of degradation when Lauderdale
occupied the vice-regal chair, when Sharp controlled the well-springs
of religion, when Paterson, the inventor of the double thumbscrews,
was advanced to the Privy Council and to the see of Edinburgh,
when mendacious Mackenzie pleaded in the name of justice, when
heartless Claverhouse rode out to guard the angel of peace in 1679.
While King Charles, with an incredible dissimulation, himself a secret
Papist, sanctioned the persecution of his co-religionists, even per-
mitting death to overtake a sayer of mass, and allowed the people to
be disturbed over popish plots and the dissolution of the Cavalier
Parliament, the best Scottish minds were occupied with thoughts of
salvation.^ ' There are more converts than ever,' wrote Blackadder
to exiled MacWard. Armies of believers met all winter. If there
were more crowns there were more crosses. The Council proclaimed
the Papists and Quakers, but refrained from prosecuting them.
The case of William Veitch indicates how differently Presbyterian
dissenters were harried.^ Veitch, an unattached probationer, joined
the insurgents in 1666, and being dispatched on business, just missed
the fight but got into the rout after Rullion Green. After marvellous
escapes he reached England, with other fugitives, and lurked all
winter in Newcastle under the name of William Johnston. His wife
followed. He farmed and taught, to maintain a home, ultimately
settling at Stanton near Morpeth. He was discovered and sent
down to Edinburgh, where he appeared before Sharp and the
' Hallam, ii. 443.
'^ The Scots Worthies (Carslaw's edition) 607-22.
THE EXIT OF SHARP 279
Committee of Council on 22nd February 1679.^ His farm was dis-
plenished and thrown into lea, to obtain support for his wife and six
children, till his fate was sealed. The old sentence of death and
forfeiture stood against him. The Council examined him. ' Have
you taken the Covenant ? ' asked Paterson, now Bishop of Edinburgh.
The prisoner replied : ' All that see me at this honourable board may
easily perceive that I was not capable to take the Covenant, when
you and the other ministers of Scotland tendered it.' This telling
retort sent the court into laughter. They ordered him to the Bass
till the King considered his case. In March a reply came that Veitch
was to be tried, or, in other words, to be hanged. To take his neck
out of the halter great influence was brought to bear on Lauderdale
and others. Gilbert Elliot of Craigend, the prisoner's agent, was
sent up to London to prosecute the petition, and he was able to make
political capital out of the case, with the result that Veitch, after
various sordid intrigues and mean subterfuges, was liberated." Long-
afterwards when Elliot, then Lord Minto, visited Dumfries, where
Veitch was minister after the Revolution, Minto facetiously remarked
to Veitch : ' Ah, Willie, Willie, had it no' been for me, the pyets had
been pyking your pate on the Netherbow Port.' The equally
humorous minister retorted : ' Ah, Gibbie, Gibbie, had it no' been for
me, ye would ha'e been yet writting papers for a plack the page.'^
The legal procedure for detecting a Whig or Cameronian had stripping
been brought to such a pitch of perfection that a suspicious sneeze, a
diffident reply, or a misunderstood reference was enough to imperil a
person's liberty. Another kind of evidence was pitched upon. Wor-
shippers returning from conventicles were to be stripped as far as
decency permitted and the clothing retained as evidence. Boys
entering college or beginning trades were to produce certificates of
church attendance.* It is too ludicrous to picture 'Bonnie Dundee'
and his slashing dragoons returning from a Sunday raid with their
saddles hung with the coats and breeches of men and the petticoats
' M'Crie, Veitch, 94. 2 yj^^_ ^g^. Cone, Dec, 275, 31st July 1679.
' Memoirs, 99 note. * Wodrow, iii. 13, 14, 33.
28o THE COVENANTERS
and shawls of women, and with nosebags full of Bibles and other
oddments of the chase. Such was the work of heroes then ! The
Council blamed the three preachers, Welsh, Semple, and Arnot, for
being the chief promoters of disorder, and offered 9000 merks (;^50o)
for Welsh, and 2000 merks each for Semple and Arnot, as well as
900 merks for any vagrant preacher.^ No bribe was sufficient to
tempt the persecuted to betray their homeless pastors.
NewCommis- That the laws might not remain inoperative, the Council, on 27th
Peace. February, added many names to the Commission of the Peace in all
counties between the Grampians and the Cheviots, and also appointed
active deputes to the sheriffs and bailies of regality. Several of
these officials had already graduated in wickedness, and were yet to
blossom red in the 'crimson iniquity of the time.' Claverhouse and
Captain Andrew Bruce of Earlshall were commissioned deputes for
Dumfries, Annandale, Wigtown, and Kirkcudbright. Robert Grierson
of Lag, a youth of twenty-two, was associated with them in Wigtown,
and Captain John Paterson in Kirkcudbright.'^ The depute for Fife
and Kinross, with various regalities, was the notorious William
Carmichael of Easter Thurston. Their courts were to meet weekly.
Their duty was to extinguish dissent and dissenters. They were to
be paid by results. Their instructions placed every one in their
power. Fines exacted from those not heritors were to go to these
depute-sheriffs, and fines taken from the landed proprietors were to
fall to the Crown and to the commissioners in equal parts.^ If the
harriers were thus tempted to plunder, the sufferers were sorely
tempted to resist and retaliate.
Blackadder, an invalid hiding in a seventh-story garret in
Edinburgh, records a scuffle which brought more tribulation to the
persecuted. One night in March, some gentlemen met in the house
of Mrs. Crawford in a quiet close in Edinburgh in order to transact
' Proclamation, 6th February ; Aldis, List, 2158 ; Wodrow, iii. 15.
'^ William Douglas of Morton was afterwards associated with Claverhouse in Dumfries
and Annandale. Lag Castle, Dunscore, stands eight miles north-west of Dumfries.
2 Wodrow, iii. 17-23 ; ' Carmichael's Warrant ' : Wodrow MSS.., xliii. 26.
THE EXIT OF SHARP 281
commercial business. A mischievous boy informed Major J ohnston Drubbing of
of the City Guard, in order to see the sport of that zealous breaker- Johnston.
up of conventicles dispersing an orderly gathering. The gentlemen
resented the Major's rude intrusion, and drawing weapons, gave him
so sound a drubbing that he yelled, ' For Christ's sake, send me not
to hell,' and promised that he would never disturb a meeting again.
One of his soldiers was mortally wounded by a pistol-shot. Richard
Cameron's brother, Michael, blamed for having laid the trap for
Johnston, was one of the flagellators, for whose capture the Council
offered 1000 merks reward. The affront was further avenged by
ordering all ministers and their families to leave the city, and
the magistrates of Edinburgh and Glasgow were commanded to
make a nightly census and to remove all visitors beyond their
bounds.^
A conventicle held at Cummerhead, Lesmahagow, on Sabbath Fight at
30th March, ended in a gallant affair. Lieutenant Dalziel and sl ^oihlilich"
party of soldiers, afraid to attack the main body, hovered at a 1679-
distance and seized stragglers, stripping some women and detaining
some men. The Whigs, marshalling the men of Strathaven and
Douglasdale, boldly demanded the release of the prisoners, and in
the fray Dalziel and seven of his men were captured. But for
the interposition of William Cassils, a Douglas man, Dalziel, who
was wounded, would have been put to death, and for this generous
act Cassils got a royal pardon.^ Before a commission got time to
investigate this affair, and examine eleven prisoners lying in Lanark
jail, another outrage took place near Loudoun Hill. Early onMurderat
Sabbath morning, 20th April, two infantry soldiers, quartered upon
a farmer who had not paid his cess, were roused from sleep. One
of them on going to the door was saluted by an invitation, quite
unlike a Covenanter's : ' Come out, you damned rogues.' A shot laid
him low. A second shot and an assault also mortally wounded his
comrade, who was able to identify John Scarlet as his assailant.
' Wodrow, iii. 31-3; lilackadder, Memoirs^ 208.
* LatKi. fap., iii. 162 ; Wodrow, iii. 33-6.
VOL. II. 2 N
282
THE COVENANTERS
Action of
heritors in
Ayr.
Enormities of
Sheriff-depute
Carmichael.
Wodrow's picture of this villain is not inviting. This Scarlet was
well qualified to paint the country red. He was a tinker, confessedly
illiterate, a soldier dismissed from the service, an unabashed poly-
gamist who wandered about the country with his harem betimes, and
then broke into piety, probably in the garb of a Whig, all the time
he was a Government ' fly ' or informer, ready to swear that he had
been one of Welsh's bodyguard, and said to have joined the body-
guard of Richard Cameron.' The odium of the murder was cast
upon the Cameronian party.
The landowners of Ayrshire met and resolved to send Lords
Loudoun and Cochrane and Sir John Cochrane as a deputation to
the Council to express detestation of these armed conventicles and
outrages, which they attributed to the influence of ' a few unsound,
turbulent and hot-headed preachers, most part whereof were never
ministers of the Church of Scotland,' whom they also accused of
fostering schism, separation, and rebellion." This severe criticism,
from a quarter where sympathy for the hunted was expected, could
not fail to encourage the Council to proceed with their authorisation
to the whole army to capture or kill Welsh, Cameron, Kid, Douglas,
and other leaders of armed field-worshippers.' The breach between
the moderate and the extreme sections of the Cameronians, as the dis-
affected generally for some time had been called, was being made
wider every time the various leaders met to discuss the situation.
There was a lack of unanimity and cohesion among these parties.'
The atrocious procedure and vile acts of Carmichael, depute to
the Sheriff-principal of Fife, the Earl of Rothes, were no longer
endurable by the wanderers in Fife, whose feelings were outraged
by the tales of robberies, rapes, adulteries, and other sins of the flesh,
as well as of torture by match and maltreating of women and children,
' Wodrow, ill. 36, 37. John Scarlet, described as of ' Kirkness, Portmoak, tinker,'
appeared before the Lords of Justiciary on 12th May 1679, and again on 31st January 1681,
when he was sent down to Cunningham for punishment for his crimes : Book of Adjournal.
''■ Wodrow, iii. 38. ^ /^/^^ jg.
* The icmi 'Cameronian' as applied to the parties 'agin the Government' appears to
have been in use before this time, probably in 1677. Cf. Six Saints, i. 241 ; ii. 167, note 9.
THE EXIT OF SHARP 283
indulged in by the agents of the Crown.' During the month of
April 1679, about twenty men, including David Hackston of Rathillet,
met in Gilston, Leslie, and other places to pray and to consider
probable action. The hapless Sharp was now devoted for sacrifice,
at least by the determination of some of these outlaws.^
Since January, before the execution of Mitchell, 'several godly Plot to dis-
men ' had been dogging the Primate between St. Andrews and ^^^'^^ ^^^"^'
Edinburgh ; twice he narrowly escaped their sinister intentions ; and
' other worthy Christians had used means to get him upon the road
before.' The zealots at several meetings discussed the subject of the
removal of Sharp and Carmichael, and concluded it to be their duty
to hang both of them 'over the port,' much as Cardinal Beaton had
been treated. Russell and other conspirators, feeling impulses to do
something, consulted the oracle in the Scriptures and confessed
having got encouragement therein for their homicidal mania. John
Balfour of Kinloch, a/ias ' Captain Burleigh,' declared he was pre-
vented fleeing to the Highlands, and, on asking God's mind, was
turned back with these words, ' Go, and prosper.' Then he got this
divine commission from Scripture, ' Go, have not I sent thee .'* ' and
he dared no longer question.^ Smith, a godly weaver in Struther-
dyke, prayed, then oracularly observed, that if God wished it He
would place the persecutors in the avengers' way.
The result of these deliberations was the desire for an assize on
' Wodrow, iii. 42.
- The authorities for the following facts are inter alia : Add. MSS. (Brit. Mus.), 28747,
fol. 23 : Rothes to Lauderdale, 4th May 1679 ; Cal. State Pap. (Charles 11.), 79, fol. 412 ; A
True Relation . . . (Lond., 1679) ; Anal. Scot., ii. 389 ; A True Account . . . (Lond., 1679) (by
Mackenzie ?) ; Hickes, The Spirit of Popery . . . (Lond., 1680) ; Russell's 'Account' in Kirkton,
403-82; Guillan's 'Account,' Wodrow MSS.,iiX\v.; M'Crie, Veitch,\OT,\ Blackadder, iT/f/««W,
210, 211 ; Burnet, ii. 236 ; Wodrow, iii. 40-52 ; Macldnlay MS., A coppie of the maner of the
death, etc. ; Wodrow, iii. 49 note ; 'Account . . . from two persons present,' Kirkton, 419 note ;
Stephen, Life, 57S-619 ; Defoe, 24S ; Fountainhall, Decisions, i. 47, 62; Hist. Not., i. 225;
Aldis, Zzi/, 2160, 2170 ; 'Lz.w, Memoirs, 147; Mackenzie, Vindication, ^o; Criminal Letters,
IVodroui MSS., xx\u\. 48; Book of Adjournal, 1683; Vict. Nat. Biog:, art. 'Sharp'; Pe^.
Sec. Cone, Dec, 1679 ; Pat. Walker (ed. Fleming), Si.x Saints, i. 214 ; ii. 160 ; 'Account of
Balfour of Burley ' in Scots Mag., i. 130, September 1817 ; Scott, Old Mortality, chaps, iv., v.,
and notes. Cf. postea, pp. 284, 286.
■' Russell's ' Account ' in Kirkton, 408, 412.
284
THE COVENANTERS
Deliberations
of the twelve
plotters.
Escape of
Carmichael.
Discovery of
the Primate.
horseback with Hackston at their head, if he would take command.
It was also agreed to invite two stalwart fighters for the cause, then
absent, John Balfour and John Henderson. On Friday, and May,
the thirteen conspirators met on the moor near Gilston, and, after
discharging a weak associate, the lucky number proceeded to
Baldinny to spend the night.' Robert Black's wife there was a
veritable Judith encouraging the desperadoes, one of whom gave her
a holy kiss at parting, when she replied : ' If long Leslie | minister at
Ceres] be with him [Sharp], lay him on the green also.' 'There is
the hand that shall do it,' was the response of the gallant.^
Early in the morning a scout was dispatched, and returned to
report that Sheriff Carmichael, who loved to hunt a hare as well as to
run a Whig to earth, was already riding with his dogs to Tarvit Hill,
A party mounted and rode to the hill to find that Carmichael, warned
by a shepherd, had gone back to Cupar. He had realised his peril.
A night or two before, Hackston had fixed on the door of Cupar
school a discharge to all parties buying Carmichael's poinded goods,
thereby putting the people in reverence of Whig reprisals.
When the scattered conspirators met again to consider the next
move, a boy appeared with a message from Mrs. Black to the effect that
the coach of the Archbishop was passing between Ceres and Blebo-
hole. They saw it and exclaimed : ' Truly, this is of God ; it seemeth
that God hath delivered him into our hands.' All except Hackston
avowed a clear call to kill, or, in their fatalistic terminology, ' to
execute the justice of God' on the 'murtherer of His saints.'
Hackston had scruples. There was ' a known prejudice betwixt the
bishop and him,' so that his intervention now 'would mar the glory of
the action.' When he refused to lead the band of nine in the chase
Balfour cried, 'Gentlemen, follow me.' This bold avenger was
described at Hackston's trial as 'a laigh, broad man, round, ruddy
' They were David Hackston of Rathillet, John Balfour of Kinloch, James Russell in
Kettle, George Fleman or Fleming in Halbuthy, junior, Alexander and Andrew, sons of John
Henderson in Kilbrachmont, James, Alexander, and George Balfour in Gilston, William
Danziel in Caddam (Robert Dingwall in 'Hue and Cry'). Thomas Ness in P ,and Andrew
Guillan, weaver in Balmerino. a 'Deposition' in Kirkton, 418 note.
THE EXIT OF SHARP 285
faced, dark brown hair, and had ane brown horse, armed with hulster
pistols and a shable [sword]. '^ Hackston followed his brother-in-law
on a white horse.
We turn to the intended victim. He had done his worst for the The final
Covenant he had sworn, his utmost against the faithful maintainers sharp.
of it. His untiring assiduity in wiping out what he called the
'gangrene' of dissent had its most striking illustration on Thursday,
the ist of May, when he attended the Privy Council for the last time.
He was one of twenty-six legislators who sat that day revising and
authorising sanguinary measures. One of these was a proclamation
' Against being in arms at field conventicles,' afterwards published
on 13th May.^
This order virtually empowered any ofificer of the Crown— the
meanest justice of the peace or youngest subaltern — to seize, try for
treason, and execute on the spot any suspected conventicler carrying
any ' weapon invasive.' The Primate, it was said, contemplated
going to London to have the latest repressive legislation sanctioned,
and this may have been one of the ' papers of moment ' found when
his coach was ransacked. It was an iniquitous Act quite to be
expected at the end of a reptilious career, and a suitable accompani-
ment for the French pistols, which this high-priest carried along with
his pictorial Bible.
On the 2nd May, the Primate, his daughter Isabella, and five sharp on the
servants, with the state-coach drawn by six horses, reached the Andrews,
village of Kennoway, where Captain Seatoun entertained them for
the night. On Saturday forenoon the equipage halted at the manse
of Ceres, where the social prelate had a comforting pipe with ' long
Leslie.' As they proceeded homeward Sharp grew nervous as he
approached Millar's farm at Magus, or iNlagask, and said to his
daughter : ' There lives an ill-natured man, God preserve us, my
child.' ^ It was a timeous presentiment.
' M'Crie, Misc. Wril., yi"] note. He was a burly man, known as ' Burly,' or ' Burley."
- Wodrow, iii. 58 note ; /v'ey. Sec. Cone, Dec, 245 ; Aldis, List, 2161, 2162, 2163.
•^ Wodrow, Narrative, iii. 46 note.
286
THE COVENANTERS
The chase. At noon, as the coach rumbled up to the ridge where Magus Moor
slopes down into green Strathkinness, in sight of the cathedral towers
of St. Andrews, three miles and a half away, the band of nine
'execrable fanatical assassinates,' as the Hue and Cry described them,
were seen galloping, pistols in hand, and naked shables gleaming in
the sun looped to their right wrists. The other three, James and
Alexander Balfour in Gilston and Thomas Ness, did not join the
assassins.' Suspecting their evil design, the prelate frantically urged
coachman and postillion to ' drive, drive, drive.' Balfour, Russell,
Henderson, and others fired at the fleeing coach, then threw their
pistols and cloaks on the ground. Slashing the faces of horses and
postillions, ham-stringing the leaders, and cutting the traces, they
soon held up the coach. With execrations, ' dog,' ' villain,' 'apostate,'
' murderer of Mitchell, Guthrie, and Learmont,' they ordered him
to ' come forth, Judas.' He descended yet unwounded." More pro-
bably Balfour's last shot into the .standing coach gave him the only
gun-shot wound he got.^
The premeditated informal assize proceeded on the moorland,
and the fierce accusers, hurling impeachments and taunts at the
defenceless prisoner, in imitation of the Council's method, were
prosecutor, jury, judge, and executioners in turn. Asseverating that
'he never wronged man,' he piteously begged his life. They told
him to repent and prepare for death, judgment, and eternity, and bade
him pray. He would not pray, or, in the circumstances, could not.
Assuming a judicial air Balfour said that no spleen moved them ;
Sharp, murderer, betrayer, and enemy of Christ, must die. On
Sharp makes his knees he looked up into the squinting eyes of little Balfour, fiercer
a vain appeal. igQi^jng with his ten wecks' beard, and probably recognising that
beggared heritor, said : ' You are a gentleman . . . have pity upon
my poor child here and spare her life, and for this, sir, give me your
hand.' Balfour's reply was a slash on his upturned face before he
A deadly
assize.
' Kirkton, 413. - His son's Letter, Kirkton, 483.
' Russell's 'Account' in Kirkton, 417. Veitch mentions Burly's 'brazen blunderbus':
Memoirs, 104.
THE EXIT OF SHARP 287
rode him down. Another account makes Sharp crawl to the feet
of Hackston, who answered his entreaty, ' Sir, I shall never lay a
hand on you.' At the sight of the cold steel the Archbishop shrieked.
His daughter rushed between the avenging blades and her father,
and was wounded too. With fiendish delight Russell recorded the
brutalities — usually attributed to Balfour — which he himself per-
petrated.' Guilian, who held the horses, implored the slayers to
spare the old man's life, and was threatened by Balfour. He
appealed to Hackston, who, mounted on horseback, ' his cloak
about his mouth,' stood by looking on at the tragedy. But ' that The ro;// «■<;
once pious godly youth' refused to interfere. At length William May 1679.
Dingwall gave the victim the final thrust, and Russell exultingly
exclaimed: 'Take up your priest now.' Wallace, one of the atten-
dants, made a gallant defence before he was cut down.
The dead man's pockets were rifled. The coach and baggage
were next ransacked. They found State papers, a Bible, a talisman,
a tobacco-box, out of which flew a humming-bee (supposed to be his
'familiar'), some nail parings — probably used for scaring witches —
a case of pistols, and a few trifles belonging to his daughter.^
A monument marks the scene of the tragedy. In an adjoining
field another marks the grave of five men put to death there to
appease the manes of Archbishop Sharp : while in a clump of trees
close by, still another stone indicates the spot where Guilian, after
being hung in chains, was buried.^ With almost regal pomp the body
of the Primate was conveyed to St. Andrews, and, on the 17th May,
buried in the parish church there. As was meet. Bishop Paterson,
the inventor of the thumbscrews, preached the funeral sermon. A
handsome monument representing the Archbishop in the attitude of
prayer, and also portraying the slaughter, was erected to his memory,
' A post-mortem examination showed that the Primate had got a sword-cut over the left
eye ; many cuts on the back of the head with loss of brains ; one shot-wound below the right
clavicle ; one dagger wound near the kidneys ; three wounds on the left hand and one on the
right hand : The Spirit of Popery, 58. This was practically one wound for every outlaw
present. Russell's boastful, self-glorifying, brutal narrative must be taken with a discount.
For Guillan's fate, cf. postea. William Dingwall fell at Drumclog. Ci. posfea, p. 303.
' Kirkton, 421 ; Wodrow, iii. 45. > C{. postea, p. 405 note i.
2SS
THE COVENANTERS
The dispatch
of Sharp was
preconcerted.
Estimate of
Archbishop
Sharp.
•and (at least once repaired) still remains a striking memorial of the
breadth of Presbyterian toleration.
That the dispatch of Sharp was premeditated seems certain, and,
as the outlaws blasphemously expressed their determination, the
accomplishment of it was left to the direction of God. John Wel-
wood, when dying, is credited with saying in April to a hapless
youth, then intercommuned — Andrew Ay ton of Inchdarnie : 'You'll
shortly be quit of him, and he '11 get a sudden and sharp off-going,
and ye will be the first that will take the good news of his death to
heaven.' ^ The prophecy was fulfilled. In searching on the night of
the murder for the perpetrators of the deed, a party of soldiers under
the Justice-General and the laird of Lundy met, shot, and mortally
wounded this 'comely sweet youth,' Ayton, riding peacefully down to
Cupar to hear a preacher there, and they also took Hendry Shaw.^
Thus disappeared the much misguided champion of unpopular
prelacy— hero and saint he was not — whose prowess was exhibited
in the persistent audacity with which he, devoid of intellectual and
moral strength, at the bidding of superiors in rank and authority,
slavishly devoted himself to foisting, by ignoble means, on his country
and Church, a system of government as unconstitutional as it was
detestable to honourable freemen. A competent and unprejudiced
authority, Mr. Osmund Airy, has well declared what the knowing
Covenanters always said, and died for saying: ' In the most compre-
hensive sense of the term, Sharp was a knave pur sang, and one who,
to retain the price of his knavery, either submitted to be cajoled,
threatened, bullied, or ignored, by bolder men as served their turn.' *
What more needs to be said? The most exalted Christian in Scot-
land— absit omen — was a knave pur sang\ Little wonder that that
clearest-headed and largest-hearted of Scotsmen, who so long with
dignity lived in the same sacred precincts, could write : ' But his
> Six Saints, i. 214.
- Ibid., 215; Wodrow, ill. 56; Rothes to Lauderdale, 4th May 1679: Add. MSS.,
28547, fol. 23. Letters found about Ayton's person and in Russell's house indicated precon-
certed measures against Sharp : Kirkton, 424 note.
' Laud. Pap; i., Pref. x.
Effigy of Archbisliop Sharp in the Parish Churcli, Si. Andrews
(l'lwtogra/>li by Mr. (,'. B, Rodger, St. Andrews)
THE EXIT OF SHARP 289
[Sharp's] public career after the Restoration is without redeeming
points ; and even as one stands by his bloody grave, where I have
stood more than once with the wisest and gentlest of modern
Anglican teachers, it is hardly possible to start a tear of sympathy
over his awful fate.'^ After all, there may have been many who
thought, what Judge Brodie wrote in his Diary: 'I heard that the
Bishop of St. Androes was kild. It grewd my soul to hear that
ane professing reall grace should fall in such an act. I abhor it
perfectlie."^ As was to be expected, the Covenanters were divided
into two parties when considering the justifiableness of the execution
of Sharp by self-constituted judges — the extremists, such as the author
of A Hind Let Loose, defending, and other sufferers reprobating it.
Wodrow mentions the fact that the Scots cong-regation in Rotterdam
would not allow the outlawed Balfour to have fellowship with them in
the Communion on account of his indefensible life and character.^
The baneful influence of Sharp, so far from dying with him, found
expression in the redoubled rigour with which his bereft associates
persisted in executing old and new persecuting enactments.* The
high-priest's mantle fell on the King's advocate — Mackenzie. On
the 4th May the Council issued a Hue and Cry, with the names of the
assassins printed red, probably in blood, offering 10,000 merks for
their apprehension, plainly attributing the murder to the conven-
ticlers, and ordering heritors and masters in Fife to gather all the
inhabitants at four centres for examination, the absentees to be
reckoned assenters to the murder.^ Another proclamation made
heritors and masters responsible for the offences of suspects not
apprehended or evicted from their lands or service." Another forbade
any one carrying arms without a licence."
The killing of a Crown dignitary afforded a pretext for further
' Principal TuUoch, Scottish Divines, 138 (Edin., 1883).
'' 5tli May 1679 : Diary, 412. * Wodrow, iii. 47.
* Sir Walter .Scott probably had a foundation for the vow which he makes Claverhouse
take, never to excuse any from ' the ample and bitter penalty of the law, until I shall have
taken as many lives in vengeance of this atrocious murder, as the old man had grey hairs
upon his venerable head' ; Old Mortality, x. " Wodrow, iii. 52 note.
« Ibid., 56, 57, 58 and notes ; Aldis, List, 2160, 2170. ' Aldis, List, 2162.
VOL. II. 2 0
igo
THE COVENANTERS
Flight of the
assassins.
Vengeance of Spoliation. There was little need for fresh incitements. On that
ment. vcry May day Lord Ross had to throw eight soldiers into irons for
committing a wanton burglary and arson. ^ Innocents apprehended
lay in prison long, untried, forgotten.'- For holding private worship
in a relative's house after canonical hours, William Hamilton, a
preacher, was thrown into the cells, where dysentery cut him off
before he could be tried, no engagement for his compearance being
acceptable to the Council.^ The jailors and Claverhouse were busy.
The westlandmen burned with ragfe.
From Magus Moor the bloodstained gang, after gathering up their
cloaks and pistols, rode away to hold a prayer-meeting for several
hours, at which they praised themselves, gloried in their deed, and
lauded God, 'seeing He had been pleased to honour them to act for
Him and to execute His justice upon that wretch.' The disordered
Dingwall avowed that he heard the Lord saying to him, ' Well
done, good and faithful servants.' Thereafter they rode away, some
to home, others into hiding. The Balfours, Hackston, and Russell
rode together, deviously, and, after various adventures, came to
Dunblane, where they had a stiff refreshment of brandy before pro-
ceeding to Kippen. There a preacher joined them, and while, on
1 8th May, they were preparing for a conventicle in Fintry Craigs, a
party of horse from Stirling attacked and dispersed them, not until
some of the soldiers were wounded, and one of the Whigs, called
Robert Rainie, received a spent shot. Burly only evading capture by
flight over a bog. Often suspected, and even recognised, although
never betrayed, they skulked and moved towards the safer west,
where Richard Cameron's following were defying the Government.*
Richard Cameron, since obtaining licence in the spring of 1678,
had developed into a fervid evangelical preacher and an implacable
' Napier, Memorials, ii. 303.
■^ E.g. the cases of James Stirk, Thomas Ness, William Falconer (bedfast): Reg. Sec. Cone,
Dec, 330, 425. ' Wodrow, iii. 54.
•• For the shelter which Hackston got from Allan of Elsrickle near Biggar, he presented
his host with his ring, and remarked, ' I am uncolys [exceedingly] obleeged to you.' The
ring is in the possession of Mrs. Pearson, Crofthead, Muirkirk, whose family preserve this
anecdote.
THE EXIT OF SHARP 291
enemy to Erastianism, even in its compromise between the outed and Richard
the indulged ministry, which was favoured by Welsh, Blackadder, theTrecon"
and other moderately inclined nonconformists. The latter, lamenting "'^bies.
further divisions, worked for reunion and peace. The Cameronian
or Cargill party with Douglas and others, encouraged by the
trenchant advices and pamphlets of the exiles, Brown, MacWard,
and others, deemed it their duty to hold denunciatory services in the
parishes allotted to the indulged. Cameron would not brook any
restraint or even counsel on these points, and continued banning the
Indulgence and the State for interfering with the Church. The
more prudent nonconforming ministers, who had licensed Cameron,
cited him to compear at Sunday well on 14th November 1678, and at
Dindeuch in Galloway on 26th December 1678, to submit to presby-
terial discipline and instruction.' Cameron, supported by Henry Hall
of Haughhead, Robert Hamilton, Robert Gray, John Fowler, Michael
Cameron, his brother, and others, attended at Sundaywell. Taking
exception to the procedure, Cameron haughtily left the convention,
unconcerned about the proposal to take away his licence.'^ Robert
Hamilton objected to these unconstitutional meetings altogether.
Hamilton was the younger son of Sir Thomas Hamilton of Sir Robert
Preston and Fingalton (who signed the Covenant in 1638) and was jg^^','""'
born in 1650.^ He was educated in the house of Professor Gilbert
Burnet, brother-in-law to his father.^ According to Burnet, Robert
was 'then a lively, hopeful, young man,' whom the company of
dissenters turned into 'a crackbrained enthusiast.''* Blackadder
describes him as the young incompetent convener of meddlers and
' Sundaywell or Sundewal, a fine old house, Kirko's home, with the inscription 'J. K. S. W.,
165 1,' still stands on the road between Dunscore and Craigenputtock.
' Herkless, Cameron, 68-78 ; Howie, The Scots Worthies (Carslaw's edition), 423.
^ J. B. Dalziel, The Covenanters, 8 (Hamilton, 1888). Janet Hamilton, his sister, married
Alexander Gordon of Earlston. M'Millanites, according to Patrick Walker, 'should be called
Hamiltonians, after Robert Hamilton, who was the only man . . . that led them in these
untroden, dangerous paths of positive disowning of the State, and separation from the
Church, and [from] all others that dare not nor will not go their lengths in principles and
practices' : Six Saints, i. 138, 139 ; Howie, The Scots Worthies, 597-607.
' Burnet's sister was the second wife of Sir Thomas Hamilton, and step-mother of Robert.
» Hist.t ii. 238.
292
THE COVENANTERS
Manifesto by
the extremists,
Testimony at
Rutherglen,
29th May
1679.
Sticklers, who held frequent deliberative meetings in 1678, before the
times were ripe, to consider the propriety of rising in arms, and
thereby did no good to the cause by making the people restless and
the executive more rigorous/ Officers in the country warned the
Government to expect a rising. Claverhouse, one of whose pre-
datory soldiers had lately mortally stabbed the Provost of Stranraer,
informed Linlithgow, the Commander-in-chief, that the peasantry ■
possessed the arms of the militia, and that ' Mr. Welsh is accustom-
ing both ends of the country to face the King's forces, and certainly
intends to break out in an open rebellion.' -
Hackston and his associates came into touch with Hamilton,
Douglas the preacher, and their party, who held a conventicle in
Avondale on the 25th May. Now determined to make a public
testimony, a deputation of these extremists — Hamilton, Hackston,
Burly — went to Glasgow to meet Donald Cargill and John Spreul,
for the purpose of settling the terms of a manifesto, first to be
approved, as it was, at a meeting at Strathaven, before being formally
published at Rutherglen.
For this act they selected the 29th May, the unpopular statutory
holiday in honour of the King's birth and restoration. To Ruther-
glen they rode, sixty or eighty in number, put out the bonfires on the
streets, and compelled the magistrates to accompany them to the
Market Cross. After Douglas prayed and harangued the crowd, the
sympathisers sang a psalm. Hamilton then read out the manifesto
in its seven sections, whereby they, ' as true members of the Church
of Scotland,' added their testimony to that of the martyrs against all
the statutes for overturning the work of Reformation, establishing
Episcopacy, renouncing the Covenants, outing the ministry, imposing
Restoration Day, setting up the royal supremacy, authorising the
Indulgence, and against the illegal acts of the Privy Council.*
Hamilton affixed the Testimony to the Cross and threw the
obnoxious statutes into a fire. The zealots would have invaded
' Memoirs, 214.
' Kirkton, 439 ; Wodrow, iii. 66.
Napier, Memorials, ii. 202 : 21st April 1679.
THE EXIT OF SHARP 293
Glasgow had it not been strongly held by Lord Rosse. Instead,
they retired to the wilds of Lanark and Ayr, to brood and pray over
the wronofs which groaded them into becominof revolutionaries.^ There
were many secret sympathisers with their cause who had not the
courage to oppose the ' Sons of Belial,' and who consoled themselves,
meantime, with the prayer of ' Burley's Litany ' —
' From the Archbishop's Hector, ready att a call,
From the Carrabine charged with a double ball.
From John Whyt, the hangman, who is last of all,
Libera nos Domine.'
' Very interesting short biographies of the leading Covenanters are found in 7'Ae Sco/s
IVorihies, by John Howie of Lochgoin. The excellent revised edition by the Rev. W. H.
Carslaw, M.A. (Edin., 1870), was consulted for this work, g.v. The Rev. John H. Thomson's
edition (Edin., 1871) of ^4 Cloud of Witnesses (1714) presents the 'Last Speeches and
Testimonies' of the sufferers, g.v. The complement of both is the Rev. J. H. Thomson's
TAe Martyr Graves of Scotland, edited by the Rev. Matthew Hutchison, and containing a
masterly introduction by Dr. D. Hay Fleming, entitled 'The Story of the Scottish Covenants
in Outline' (1903). Exquisite characterisations are presented by the Rev. Alexander Smellie,
M.A., in his Men of the Covenant {Lond., 1903), g.v.
294
THE COVENANTERS
CHAPTER XXVI
THE RISE OF CLAVERHOUSE
Lineage of
Graham of
Claverhouse,
To the chase after these defiant Whigs
' There, worthy of his masters, came
The Despot's Champion, bloody Graham,
To stain for aye a warrior's sword.
And lead a fierce, though fawning horde, —
The human bloodhounds of the earth.
To hunt the peasant from the hearth.'
At this time Claverhouse had the repute of being a terror in the
south, at the mention of whose name intending conventiclers dis-
appeared. This John Graham, eldest son of Sir William, laird of
Claverhouse and Claypots, near Dundee, and of Lady Magdalene
Carnegie, fifth daughter of John, Earl of Ethie, afterwards first Earl
of Northesk, was of aristocratic lineage. Born probably in 1648, he
was left fatherless when five years of age.^ The latter circumstance
contributed to the comparative affluence of Claverhouse at his
majority. Like Turner, Bruce of Earlshall, Lag, and other harriers
of the Covenanters, he had a university education. No one could
conjecture this from his compositions, wherein he expressed his
thoughts in a rude, vulgar, and curiously spelled dialect, not employed
by other students in St. Andrews." With six hundred pounds
annually from his property, he had no need, like Turner, to become
a mercenary, fighting for daily bread. Yet he had gone to, and
' Terry,/o//« Graham, chap. i. ; Morris, Claverhouse, chap. i. ; Napier, Memorials, i. 178 ;
The Despot's Champion, chap. i. I have searched twenty-five likely parish registers for the
record of his birth, but in vain as yet.
' Napier, in the Memorials, wonderfully clarified the phenomenal spelling of his hero, and
gave his letters a respectable appearance.
THE RISE OF CLAVERHOUSE 295
returned from, France and Holland with the reputation of being a
dashing officer, whose white plume had marked the track of his
gallantry at Seneffe. At the instance of the King and his brother,
Claverhouse was gazetted captain of a new troop of horse on 23rd
September 1678. His duty in patrolling troublous Dumfriesshire
that winter animated him with zeal and delight. He had peculiar, if
not unique, views of soldiering at home, considering himself to be an views of
armed high-priest, commissioned to sacrifice the enemies of the Crown ^'''^"''°"=^-
as much for their own sake as for that of his employer ; an Episcopal
crusader inspired to do battle with dissent and cleanse away the
gangrene likely to infect and destroy divine Episcopacy. Thus he
confessed to Queensberry : ' For my owen pairt I look on myself as a
cleanger. I may cur people guilty of that plaigue of presbitry be
conversing with them, but can not be infected.'' He was the natural
successor to Turner, who acted on the principle, ' that so as we serve
our master honnestlie it is no matter what we serve,' since Claver-
house declared : 'In any service I have been in, I never enquired
farther in the laws, than the orders of my superior officers.'" Even
jovial Turner did not go so far as a hireling, who, given a warrant,
would shoot incontinently, and sheathe his sword anywhere. With
such a despicable want of principle, it is not surprising to find this
fanatic, Graham, when revelling in his exterminating work, compli-
menting the Earl of Menteith on a similar assiduity : ' I rejoice to hear
you have now taken my trade in hand, that you are become the
terror of the godly.' ^ Although Sir Ewen Cameron asserted that
Claverhouse died a ' good Christian,' there is no record of any pious
thoughts or humane deeds in connection with his career, apart from
the fact that he drove other sinners into church to inspect them, had
family prayers, and attended the baptism of the son of the parson of
Dundee.'' Probably for the same undiscoverable reasons that Mr.
Andrew Lang averred that Turner ' was infinitely more of a Christian
than the saints of the Covenant,' Claverhouse has a title to be con-
' Hist. A/SS. Com. Rep., XV. viii. 287. 2 Napier, Memorials, ii. 189.
* Red Book of ATcnUilh, ii. joo, * Terry, 218 note ; Cameron, Memoirs, 278, 279.
296 THE COVENANTERS
sidered the Episcopal saint and martyr, which Sharp failed to be.^
No unprejudiced historian could place an aureole round the head
Sir Walter of Claverhousc. Even Sir Walter Scott, when writing to Southey
Scott's opinion jjif ;„ j^g Covcnanters— at least the Poundtexts, Ketdedrummles,
ofClaverhouse. J to
Mucklewraths, and other oddities of his imagination — actually con-
fessed of his hero : ' I admit he was tant soit peti savage, but he was a
noble savage ; and the beastly Covenanters, against whom he acted,
hardly had any claim to be called men, unless what was founded on
their walking upon their hind feet.'"
Personai None of the biographies of ' The Despot's Champion ' gives a
oTverhouL' description of the personal appearance of John Graham, leaving
readers to form their own opinions from the prepossessing portraits
which enhance these works. The reason of this is, that writers on the
subject believed that there was no delineation extant other than the
prejudiced reference of John Dick, the student-martyr of 5th March
1684, who, in his Testimony, sneers at ' the pitiful thing,' escaping from
Drumclog on account of the fleetness of his horse, where ' there fell
prettier men on either side than himself.'^ Obviously this was a gibe
at the diminutive and plain person of the runaway from Drumclog.
That Dundee was a very small man, not more than five feet six
inches in height, with narrow sloping shoulders, is proved from his
Breastplate of breastplate, preserved in Blair Castle, and whose genuineness has
ciaverhouse. j^gygj. j^gg^ doubted. It measures but fifteen inches and a half in
length from gorge to skirt, and only eighteen inches and a quarter
across its broadest part.^ The fine portrait of this ' bonny fighter '
when young, preserved in Melville House (Leven portrait), and the
other in Glamis Castle, attributed to Sir Peter Lely, are presentations
of a Minerva rather than a Mars — of a soldier with a girl's face and a
tiger's heart. They do not depict a Privy Councillor who could attend
sanguinary cases, incite and pass bloodthirsty measures for shooting
and maiming, drowning and abusing pious men and women. It is to
' niackwood's Magazine, clxxiv. 4r, July 1903. ^ Life of Scott, ii. 134.
= 'XcYry,frihn Graham, 86 note ; Dick, The Testimony to the Doctrine, etc. (1684), n.d.
* Lord Tullibardine kindly sent these measurements to the author, 19th February 1907.
THE RISE OF CLAVERHOUSE 297
be remembered, however, that in the bloated epoch of the Stuarts the
geese were all swans to Lely and Kneller. Even M'Crie's descrip-
tion of Claverhouse as a ' handsome bloodhound ' is but partly in
harmony with the persistent tradition of the districts harassed by him
that he was an ugly man. Moray's statement to the King in 1685
that ' he knew Clauerous to be of a hye, proud, and peremptor humour,'
does not necessarily disagree with the opinion formed after viewing
the good-looking soldier in the Leven and Glamis portraits. We are
fortunate in possessing three independent accounts of Dundee, which
corroborate this tradition of the southern Whigs that the perse-
cutor was 'a small and fearsome man,' who rode 'Satan,' his black
charger, along the face of the precipitous Stey Gail, down Enterkin
Pass. John Morrison, a Terregles man, repeated to Sir Walter Scott, Morrison's
as they examined an unprepossessing portrait of Dundee, the following
account of the exploits of Dundee in Dumfries seen by Joseph
Robson : ' He [Claverhouse] attending the murder of two martyrs
on the sands of Dumfries, rode his horse along the coping of a parapet
wall built to guard off the waters of the Nith in time of floods, and
when the horse had arrived at one end, he wheeled round on one of
his hind legs as on a pivot, repeating the same manoeuvre. His arms
were long, and reached to his knees, his hair red or frizzly, and his
look altogether diabolical. Such would never be the face that painters
love to limn and ladies to look on,' added Morrison.^ This delineation
partly harmonises with a portrait which was recently sold in London,
and which, it is said, Claverhouse gave to David Bethune of Balfour
in 1 68 1, as an inscription on it bears. In this miniature he appears a
middle-aged man of sinister, vulgar lineaments, with red curly hair or
wig, clad in armour, and wearing a cravat."
A somewhat similar account is found in the curious, unreliable
' Tail's Edinburgh Magazine, x. 628 ; ' Stey Gail ' or ' Gyle,' Scots for steep gable.
^ This oval miniature, measuring 3 by 2J inches, was sold at Puttick and Simpson's sale,
29th May 1907 (item 71), to Colonel Horace Walpole, Heckfield Place, Winchfield, Hants.
The inscription on the back of the silver frame runs ; 'John Graham of Claverhouse, V'iscount
of Dundee. Given by himself to David Bethune of Balfour in i68i.' Colonel Walpole has
kindly permitted a reproduction to be made for this volume,
VOL. II. 2 P
jqS
THE COVENANTERS
Torfoot's
delineation.
A serving-
maid's
reminiscences,
Memoirs of Thomas Brownlee, laird of Torfoot, which first appeared
in the National Gazette in America.* The laird asserted : ' I
distinctly saw the features and shape of this far-famed man. He was
small of stature and not well formed : his arms were long in propor-
tion to his legs. He had a complexion unusually dark ... his cheeks
were lank and deeply furrowed . . . his irregular and large teeth were
presented through a smile which was very unnatural on his set of
features. His mouth seemed to be unusually large. ... In short his
upper teeth projected over his under lips, and on the whole presented
to my view the mouth on the image of the Emperor Julian the
Apostate.'
These extraordinary delineations are partially corroborated by an
old serving-woman, who served Claverhouse with wine in old Duffus
Castle in 1689. She survived till 1760, and described him as 'a
swarthy litle man, with keen lively eyes, and black hair tinged with grey,
which he wore in locks which covered each ear and were rolled upon
slips of lead, twisted together at the end.'" If Torfoot was right in
declaring that Claverhouse bore ' the strong expression given by
our painters to those on the face of Judas Iscariot,' it is not to be
wondered at that the Covenanters saw Apollyon himself in this Apollo
Belvedere of the Royalists. There is disillusionment in these revela-
tions. Hitherto Scottish heroes have been portrayed in the handsome
mould and mien of Agamemnon ; but to conjure up a ' pitiful thing,'
diminutive, choleric, impertinently irrepressible, with too long arms,
jumping up in Council to 'box in the ear' Sir John Dalrymple, creates
a shock. Still greater is the shock on imagining this Carolan dandy
with his locks in curls ; yet after all it might have been expected of so
close an imitator of the cavalier Montrose, who ascended the scaffold
in all the bravery of a Covent Garden coxcomb.
Little wonder that such a horrid leader, followed by a troop of
' They were copied into the Edinburgh Christian Instructor, in November 1822. Cf.
extracts in M'Crie, Misc. Writ., 308, 309 note. In the Edinburgh Magazine for July 1823 a
writer declared this account to be fictitious. Brownlee, Narrative ...of Druviclog, etc. (1822).
2 Shaw, History of the Province of Moray, ii. 84; Scott. Rev., July 1884, iv. 116: 'A
Legend of Vanished Waters' (Loch Spynie).
John Graham of Claverhouse in 1681
(Front the Portrait in f'ossession oj Colonel Horace Walpole)
Alexander Leslie, hrst Karl of Leven
The Market Cross of Edinburgh
John Balfour of Kinloch — ' Burly '
iFroiit a Portrait in possession 0/
Mr, R. Lauder, Glasgozv)
IIolviu.iil Hulls.- MonunuMt lo 'Old Muit.ilily.' The Holm. Halmaclellan
PORTRAITS OF CLAVEKHOUSK, LEVEN. AND liALFOl'R, ETC.
THE RISE OF CLAVERHOUSE 299
dare-devil riders, making over hill and dale, as the crow flies, forty
or more miles, by day or night, could boastingly report to Linlithgow :
' No body lays in their bed, that knowes themselfs any ways guilty,
within fourty milles of us.' ^ Three days afterwards Claverhouse was ciaverhouse
-...,, appointed
appointed a Sheriff-depute of Dumfriesshire, Stewartry oi Kirkcud- sheriff.
bright and Wigtownshire, the most disaffected area in the country."
This untiring soldier was so punctiliously careful, that nothing would
induce him to act contrary to the minutest terms of his commission.
Self-interest was his constant monitor.^ Turner's example, his reward
too, stared him in the face. As soon as the proclamation of 13th
May empowered all officers to proceed against traitors, Claverhouse
ofot the unlimited licence which satisfied him.
At the very time he was vigorously hunting down conventiclers,
smashing up meeting-houses, and carrying off to jail ' old and infirm
men with gravel,' he stole leisure to think of love.^ He was one of
the rare solvent officers who then could afford the luxury. He began
a correspondence with the childless, bankrupt, adulterous Earl of
Menteith, whom he styled ' the last of so noble a race." '' With an
assurance quite unsurpassed, Claverhouse offered himself for the pur-
pose of perpetuating the manly stock of Graham by marrying the heiress
of Menteith, Helen Graham, the Earl's cousin ; and in consideration ciaverhouse's
of the Earl giving him patronage and help to secure the maid, whom p°o ' °^*
probably he never saw, and also selecting him as heir to the falling
title, the ambitious, speculating wooer agreed to settle a pension on
the broken peer. Like other dragoons he swore he would take her in
her'smoak.' The needy noble saw business in the proposal which
the fair Helen rejected. There was another Graham in the competi-
tion— Montrose — who complicated matters in this sordid affair. In
Helen's praise, be it said, she chose her own match in Captain
Rawdon, and kept her honour.* Claverhouse, in leading a clean life,
was unlike his profligate contemporaries, and, with the exception of the
1 24th February 1679 : Smyth, Letters of John Graham (Bann. Club, 1826), 13.
- Ibid., i6-iS. ' Napier, Memorials, ii. 189. ^ Letters, 18.
' Red Book, ii. 170. " Terry, S4-101.
300 THE COVENANTERS
hint of guilty familiarity with Lord Advocate Mackenzie's wife, in a
scurrilous pasquil entitled Mitchell's Ghost, there is no impeachment
of the moral character of Claverhouse.'
Capture of Claverhouse was soon in pursuit of Hamilton and the Rutherglen
conventiciers. protesters. He had been recalled on some military duty, and on his
route dispersed a conventicle near Galashiels, making some notable
seizures of ladies, and Thomas Wilkie, a minister." Close on Hamilton's
party, he surprised and captured in or near the town of Hamilton the
already famous John King and fourteen suspected conventiciers,
whom he drao-oed alone with him 'bound as beasts.'^ He reached
Strathaven on Sabbath the ist of June, about six o'clock in the
morning. Claverhouse got notice of a great conventicle mustering
that day on Glaister Law or Hairlawhill, some eight miles away and
two miles from Darvel. Blustering and boasting he rode to the fray.
He declared that his men were eager to fight the rogues, and, in
order to arouse this courage, he threatened to court-martial them if
they quailed in the conflict.*
The conventiciers, duly warned of his approach, converted the sacred
meeting into a council of war, and appointed Hamilton, apparently
the only man of standing among them, to be their commander. He
had no military qualifications. His first order showed want of tact :
' L being called to command that day, gave out word that no quarter
should be given.' ^ The preacher, Douglas, finally addressed the
gathering and said : ' You have got the theory, now for the practice.'
The Covenanters were marshalled and marched away singing psalms
to a suitable arena at Drumclog, where the unarmed worshippers —
men, women, and children — were massed above the combatants
on dry rising ground partly surrounded by morasses impassable
to horse.
Drumclog and The sccnc of the encounter at Drumclog, in Lanarkshire, was the
Lou oun 1 . gj.ggjj slope of a ridge stretching between two tracts of moorland
' Kirkton, 389 note. Sir James Turner was credited with writing Mitchell's Glwst.
* Wodrow, iii. 61. ^ Short Memorial, 13 ; VVodrow, iii. 94 note.
* Letters, 25 (Bann. Club). ' Faithful Contendings, 201.
THE RISE OF CLAVERHQUSE 301
overlooked, at a distance of two miles, by the verdant dun of Loudoun
Hill, which also gave its name to the fight. A rivulet on the
western base of the declivity rendered the mead through which it ran
spongy as the bog beyond it, and impassable to troopers. Some field
dykes afforded defensive works to the defenders.^
The command of Claverhouse consisted of not more than one Covenanters
hundred and fifty men. The armed force under Hamilton probably
numbered fifty men on horse and two hundred infantry, some of whom
carried swords and firearms, the rest being armed with home-made pikes,
cleeks (halberds), pitchforks, or other rustic weapons. The strength
on either side has never been precisely ascertained. The officers
acting under Hamilton were Hackston, John Balfour, Henry Hall of
Haughhead, Robert Fleming, John Loudoun, John Brown, and William
Cleland. Cleland, then a brilliant, belligerent student of St. Salvator's
College, St. Andrews, some eighteen years old, was a leader of the
foot, and that day showed the same prowess which distinguished him
as the commander of the Cameronian regiment which held Dunkeld
in 1689.- The redoubtable William Fergusson from Caitloch, with a
troop of men from the Vale of Cairn, was also there.^ Woe worth
the day if the Whigs did not fight on this occasion !
Claverhouse, leaving King and his other prisoners in the rear Battle of
•II- ■ ■ 1 r J" a Drumclog,
under a guard, reconnoitred their position before sending out a nag ,st june 1679.
of truce. His demands were spurned. He had to attack. As the
Covenanters moved into a defensive position the whole host raised a
cry to heaven in the words of Asaph to the melody of ' Martyrs ' — the
76th Psalm: ' In Judah's land God is well known,' with its menacing
' The authorities consulted for this sketch are : Claverhouse, Letter to Linlithgow, ist June
1679 : Napier, Memorials^ ii. 220-3 ; a-'so in Laud. Pap., iii. 164 ; Russell's 'Account ' in Kirkton,
442 ; Aiton, Hist., 53 ; Wodrow, iii. 69, 94 note ; Terry, John Graham, 52 ; Morris, Claver-
house, 65 ; Barbe, Viscount Dundee, 48 ; The Despot's Champion, 43 ; Burton, Hist., vii.
224; Nisbet, Diary: M'Crie, FaVir/i, 455-61, 519 ; Thomson, Martyr Graves, ■^i ; Ayrshire
Ballads, 51 ; Nimmo, Narrative, 12; Dodds, Fifty Years, 239; Defoe, pt. iii. 238; Paget,
Paradoxes, I2i ; Fleming, Six Saints, i. 86, 125, 241, 298 ; ii. 144, 148, 215, 216, 224 : Scott,
Old Mortality, notes; Add. MSS. (Brit. Mus.), 2J244 ; Faithful Contendings, 201. The
photograph in this volume was taken by Mr. J. C. Montgomerie in August 1907.
^ Cleland entered college 2nd March 1677 ; Wilson, A True and Impartial Relation,
etc., 8 (1797).
* Smith's ' Information ' in A True Account and Declaration (of Rye House Plot), 1685.
^02
THE COVENANTERS
Defeat and
flight of
Claverhouse.
finish — 'By Him the sp'rits shall be cut off.'' That they stood
under ' The Bluidy Banner,' a flag inscribed with vindictive threats,
is a modern fiction already disposed of." Advance parties answered
each other's fusils across the morass and ditch separating the com-
batants, until Claverhouse extended some dismounted men in firing
order and thus endeavoured to make an impression on his well-posted
foe. This destructive fusillade in time would have succeeded had not
the Covenanters, realising the disadvantage they suffered from their
obsolete weapons, returned to the old method of warfare. Cleland,
Dingwall, Weir, on horse, and others on foot, joined by some gallant
women, leaped the dyke and ditch and made a wild rush through the
harmless smoke upon the royal troops, whose firing had been futile.
This fierce onset of horse, men, and Amazons, with sword, pike, and
pitchfork at the push, was too much for troopers who could not manage
their horses in the bog. Fleming's ugly pike, long preserved at
Stonehouse, ripped up the ' sorre ' horse of Claverhouse, which, as he
implies, being infuriated, carried him a mile off the field, so that his
men were cowed and fled too.^ However explained, the white plume
of Seneffe was the white feather at Drumclog. He left thirty of his
comrades dead on the moss and twelve fell at his side in the flight.
Cowardice in him and his men is proved by the smallness of the
number of the peasantry who fell — one slain and five mortally
wounded. Had Claverhouse been a gallant soldier he would have
faced his pursuers on a fair field. Far otherwise, Sergeant James
Nisbet boasted of slaying seven troopers that day.^ The Covenanters
recorded the prowess of Thomas Weir of Cummerhead, who captured
a royal standard which was afterwards retaken, and who, though
wounded, continued pursuing. According to Defoe, young Cleland
actually seized the bridle of Claverhouse's horse, and would have
' The same psalm was sung by Robert Bruce at Edinburgh Market Cross when news of
the dispersal of the Armada arrived : at Douglas Cross by Alexander Shields and the Cove-
nanters at the Revolution of 1688 ; Rrownlee (Torfoot), Narrative, 6.
^ Cf. Dr. Hay Fleming's Six Suin/s, ii. 216. Many genuine flags are preserved.
^ Some have mistaken Claverhouse's 'sorre' (miserable) charger for a sorrel.
■• M'Crie, VeiicA, 519.
THE RISE OF CLAVERHOUSE 303
taken him had he been supported.' William Dingwall was mortally
wounded, his horse having fallen as he gallantly leaped the defences
to join Cleland's victorious foot. According to Russell, his associate
in the slaying of the archbishop, Dingwall, when dying, was so ravished
with joy in his assurance of glory in Heaven, that his Testimony
often constrained sympathisers to visit his grave in Strathaven, where
they sat and wept.' The Covenanters killed were buried in local
churchyards^ — Thomas Fleming in Loudoun, John Morton and John
Gebbie in Newmilns, Dingwall in Strathaven, James Thomson in
Stonehouse, and Thomas Weir in Lesmahagow.^ As Claverhouse
galloped for life, his facetious prisoner, King, cried after him to stay
for the afternoon sermon.
The victors captured and gave quarter to a few prisoners. There
was one exception, which Hamilton 'reckoned amongst our first
stepping asyde.'* On Hamilton's return from the pursuit, he found a
group of fighters debating whether a certain prisoner should receive
the promised grace or not. They referred the matter to their leader.
The merits of the case are not available to show what the wretch was
— soldier, informer, or deserter. The order of the day being ' No Hamilton and
Quarter,' Hamilton had no alternative, if the council of war was to Quarter ' order.
be authoritative among them, and sent ' that poor man ' to death.
He afterwards justified his verdict : ' Non[e] could blame me to
decide the controversie, and I bless the Lord for it to this day.'
Extremists of this type maintained that the refusal to shed the blood
of God's enemies was the cause of the curses resting on the unhappy
Church.^ The tale of the mutilation of Cornet Robert Graham's body,
mistaken for that of Claverhou.se, and the reports of the indignities
shown to the fallen before the barricades in Glasgow, and of the
enormities practised by the Whigs on bodies in Glasgow Cathedral,
may all be dismissed as fabrications."
The beaten persecutor reached Glasgow that night, and sat down
' Memoirs, 240. -' Kirkton, 446. = Qf Tliomson, Martyr Graves, Index.
* Six Saints, ii. 216 note. ^ Ibid., 77.
* Kirkton, 442; Terry, 57 note; Woclrow, iii. 71; Napier, Memorials, iii. 229 note;
Creichton, Memoirs.
304 THE COVENANTERS
'so wearied and so sleapy,' to write the dispatch notifying, 'very con-
fusedly,' his defeat to the Commander-in-Chief, which, dated ist June,
was evidently finished next morning.^
The march of With the arch-encmy of their cause buried and the most terrible
t emsurgens. ^j- ^j^^jj. oppressors humiliated, the credulous insurgents vainly im-
agined themselves to be compelling a blessing from a pleased God,
and deemed it their duty to follow up their advantage. After a halt
at Strathaven and a sleep in Hamilton they marched to Glasgow.
Lord Ross had barricaded the central district of the city, and with
the garrison stood to arms. The insurgents appeared on Monday,
2nd June, before noon." Without artillery Hamilton found it impos-
sible to force Ross's defences ; and the gallant attacks by Balfour,
Hackston, and other bold fighters, met by the sure fusillade of the
ensconced soldiery, ended in the discomfiture of the assailants and the
loss of lives. Consequently they were compelled to retreat to their
camp at Bothwell Bridge and wait for reinforcements and munitions
of war, amd the help of God.
ciaverhouse's Claverhouse concluded his dispatch in these terms: 'The country
dispatch. ^^^ floking to them from all hands : this may be counted the beginning
of the rebellion in my opinion.' The Council thought similarly, pro-
claimed the victors of Drumclog traitors, ordered Linlithgow and the
regulars to march west, and mustered the King's host, including the
'Highland Amorites ' of Argyle. English reinforcements were pro-
mised. Ross left Glasgow and met Linlithgow at Kilsyth on 5th
June. Hearing of the strength of his opponents, Linlithgow deemed
it prudent to withdraw his force of 1800 men to Stirling, whence, on
an order from the Council, they came to Edinburgh.^ As soon as
news of the rising reached London, the Duke of Monmouth, the
King's illegitimate son, received a commission to quell the rising with
the aid of English soldiers and guns.
The insurgents, on the retiral of Ross, entered Glasgow and burned
' It has been reprinted often, c.i,'. Napier, Mcvwriah, ii. 220 ; Martyr Craves, 34 ; Scott,
Old Mortality, notes. Cf. Stowe MSS., 142 ; Brit. Mus. Cat., loi. No. 61.
- Ross to Linlithgow, 2nd June 1679 : Laud. Pap., iii. 166; Add. MSS., 23244.
' Wodrow, iii. 72-4 notes, 84 note ; Laud. Pap., iii. 168, 169.
THE RISE OF CLAVERHOUSE 305
the mansions of the prelates and Lauderdale.^ The Covenanters, in
passing to their rendezvous, had by the way bloody scuffles with the
garrisons and militia. The men of Ayrshire on the march removed
the heads of those who suffered for the rising of '66 from the Tolbooth
spikes in Ayr, Irvine, Kilmarnock, and Glasgow. The rebellious host
fluctuated between five and eight thousand men. It was composed
of four distinct classes, each a menace to the other. The victors victors in
under Hamilton, with the ministers, Cargill, Douglas, Kemp, were
the uncompromising opponents of the existing politico-ecclesiastical
system, and avowing the tenets of Richard Cameron, were ready to
adventure on action damaging to Malignant and Indulged alike."
The moderate Presbyterians, King and others, soon to be largely
reinforced by Welsh and the men of Carrick, Gordon, and the
Galloway outlaws, Ure of Shargarton and the Stirlingshire stalwarts,
and others, came into camp willing to assist in restoring freedom, I'o"'^ p^"^''"
spiritual and civil ; and, while antagonistic to the Indulgence, tolerated
all the Indulged who safeguarded Presbyterial principles. There was
a more peaceable section still, little represented however, who held
with Blackadder and Eraser of Brea that ' the Lord called for a
testimony by suffering rather than outward deliverance.'^ There was
a fourth, the worst class, the indifferent and ungodly associates, who
joined expecting loot and a chance to fight where there was no
danger. Of this order was Alexander Mackinnan, pipemaker in
Glasgow, who fought at Bothwell, robbed ministers, and being
brought to justice, got his ears nailed to a post and himself banished
in 1680.* In order to maintain discipline the officers of the Cove-
nanting host found it necessary to shoot a Glasgow butcher, named
Watson, who drove a pitchfork through a godly brother, and they
also nailed a thief by the ear to the local gallows.*^
' state Papers (Charles n.), 412, 268 ; Dr. James Colville, ' Claverhouse in Glasgow,' in
the Glasgow Herald^ 3rd and loth February igo6.
2 M'Crie, Uri^s Narr., 470.
= Blackadder's son, Dr. William, was at Bothwell Bridge : Blackadder, Memoirs, 220 ;
Select Biog., ii. 336.
* Reg. Sec. Cone, Dec, 379, 4th June 16S0. ° M'Crie, Ure's Narr., 460 ; Kirkton, 457.
VOL. n. 2 Q
3o6
THE COVENANTERS
Hamilton,
' feckless '
general.
Divided
councils.
Hamilton was not the man of Napoleonic genius qualified to
manage this incongruous, incoherent mob. His active policy of
purgation might have turned out well had Cromwell been there to
drill the holy remnant into irresistible Ironsides. There was no
chance of a miracle. There was not a leader of any calibre to
marshal that immense conventicle of wrangling theologians, unless
we except the dauntless veteran of the Civil Wars and of Rullion
Green — Captain John Paton of Meadowhead, who, with the men of
Fenwick, Newmilns, and Galston, joined Hamilton after the affair at
the barricades. Instead of entrenching a leaguer, gathering muni-
tions, appointing officers, the leaders turned the camp into a general
assembly of the hottest heads. Like stump orators the perfervid
demagogues carried their pulpits with them. One little brass gun
filched from Douglas Castle, with a few charges, was all their
artillery. Both zealots and moderates desired to promulgate a new
declaration similar, and supplementary, to that of Rutherglen, but as
the age of building platforms suitable for differing sections had not
emerged, and every would-be leader there had a stand of his own,
the fabrication of a manifesto was so difficiilt that over it arose angry
shoutings, rude jostling, forcible evictions from the pulpits,^ and
threats of cold steel. The councils of war afforded the splitters of
hairs the opportunity of producing internecine dissensions. The
Rutherglen paper was unknown to many newcomers, and, on account
of its extreme attitude to the Indulgence, required modification to suit
the views of Welsh, David Hume of Coldingham, William Fergusson
of Caitloch, and others, whose aim was to unite parties on the broad
basis of Presbyterianism. At a meeting held at Glasgow in June the
Hamilton-Cargill party mustered so strongly that the Welshites only
succeeded in getting the terms of the Rutherglen protest against the
Indulgence modified into the phrase 'declaring against popery,
prelacy, erastianism, and all things depending therupon.'^ Enough
for all save splitters of hairs, harmonising with the stereotyped
principles of Knox and Melville, almost like ecclesiastical papers of
' These portable pulpits were called ' tents.' - Wodrow, iii. 91.
THE RISE OF CLAVERHOUSE 307
our day for delightful vagueness, this equivocal compromise would not
do for the Welshites.
The Hamiltonians, in the spirit of Guthrie, wished a day ofxheHamii-
mourning to avert the Divine wrath. Their opponents opposed the extremists.
formation of a schedule in which their sins and defections were sure
to be entered along with Restoration rejoicings, cess, supremacy,
indulgence, and the compromises made by the Moderates for peace's
sake. The list staggered Welsh, who, as a constitutionalist, protested
that the enumeration of ecclesiastical offences was the function of the
General Assembly only. Sin was sin whatever the Church might
say, was the answer of Hamilton and Cargill. who held that if there
was to be co-operation, the ministry led by Welsh should denounce
the sin in the Indulgence. Hamilton, for the council of his party,
went so far as to send a peremptory order to the Moderate preachers
to preach against the Indulgence. The latter thought this interfer-
ence an intolerable illustration of Erastianism as sinful as the acts of
their common foe. Parties would not mourn together.'
The Moderates proposed a civil declaration to the effect that their The
insurrection against the Government was not a proof of disloyalty.
They were monarchists. The Hamiltonians could neither reconcile
this with their own declaration nor with their repugnance to a King
who had broken the Covenant and other vows, ruined and dis-
established the Church, slaughtered the godly, and waged war on his
people. They would abide by that declaration which left the question
of allegiance open. Theirs was the manly maintenance of a sacred
contract against which the arguments of expediency could not
prevail.
During these wranglings some sympathisers with the insurgents. The Hamilton
apprehensive of Hamilton's incapacity, deemed it advisable to frame a tionfisth /une
tentative declaration, which, through the agency of Robert Wylie, '679-
minister of Hamilton, then a prisoner in Edinburgh, and William
Dunlop, afterwards principal of the University of Glasgow, was
conveyed to the Moderates. Its strong terminology pleased Welsh ;
' Wodrow, iii. 91, 92.
;o8
THE COVENANTERS
Import of the
manifesto.
Arrival of
Monmouth
and an army.
for lack of a definition of specific evils it was abjured by Hamilton.
Welsh utilised the document in framing the new Hamilton declara-
tion, which a majority passed before it was affixed to the Cross in
Hamilton. The minority — Hamilton-Cargillites— intended amending
it by adding references to the public defections, and they were dis-
appointed, if not outwitted, on the appearance of the declaration in
print in Glasgow on 13th June.'
The declaration narrates the woeful state of the land and Church
through the brutal execution of the laws, and the refusal of redress
from the magistrates, so that a defensive rising was necessary : the
aim of the insurgents was (i) the preservation of the Church, Pro-
testant, Presbyterian, Covenanted, with its legal standards ; (2) the
maintenance and defence of the King ; (3) the obtaining of a free
Parliament and a free Assembly. This manifesto did not heal the
divisions. Hamilton declared that association with favourers of the
Indulgence would bring the malison of God, who had signally owned
the Precisians at Drumclog. Another week's wrangling and rioting
demoralised the undisciplined crowd. Many sympathisers with the
Covenanters' cause went home disaffected.
Meantime the timid Government took heart and equipped the
army. Monmouth arrived in Edinburgh on the i8th June, next day
joined the army at Blackburn, and on Saturday evening, 21st, lay
with ten thousand men before Bothwell Bridge." Linlithgow com-
manded the infantry division. Dalyell was overlooked, and left at Binns
to comb his monumental beard till, too late for the battle, he got his
commission. The extremists following Hamilton had already secured
the appointment of officers — Balfour, Hackston, Paton, Henderson,
Hall, Carmichael, Cleland, Fowler, and Major Learmonth— with
Cargill, Douglas, Kemp, and others as armed chaplains. The arrival
on the 20th of a Galloway contingent of Welshites one thousand
strong led to a discussion as to the advisability of selecting other
' state Papers, 412 ; IVodrow MSS., xxxiii. 7 ; Wodrow, iii. 96 ; Laing MSS., 89, 102—
' The Declaration of the Presbyterians now in Armes in t/ie IVest' ; The Scots Worthies, 398.
' Add. MSS., lyi^^. No. 12, Privy Council to Lauderdale, loth June, gives 10,000 men at
Shotts ; Blackadder, 224, gives 15,000 men.
THE RISE OF CLAVERHOUSE 309
officers. Quarrelling resulted. The newcomers were willing to
abide by the Hamilton declaration and to refer differences to a new
Parliament and Assembly : the Hamiltonians desired dissociation
from Indulgers. Thus the quarrel stood as the advance-guard of the
Royalists, on the 21st, had an outpost affair at a ford east of Hamilton
and mortally shot James Cleland.^ That day a great council of war
was held, and the Hamilton party left the meeting in a body.^ The
Covenanters had become distrait, and, by their preoccupying infatua-
tion, were blinded to the fact that their opponents were at hand.
The appointment of Monmouth, a Protestant, instructed to act The Duke of
. , , . , . 1 • • T^ 1- 1. Monmouth,
With toleration, gave a new complexion to the crisis. nnglisn 1649.1685.
sympathisers with the persecuted forwarded communications advising
the insurgents to negotiate with Monmouth, ' who would take it
kindly.'^ Monmouth himself, through Melville, made known his own
kindly intentions and desire of peace, and promised good terms.* His
power was unlimited, and he had authority to pardon all except the
forfeited and the slayers of Sharp. Ultimately the contending parties
agreed to forward a bare representation of the facts of the case to the
Duke, and Cargill was one of a committee appointed to revise the
draft. The document is a cultured address to the 'potent prince,'
whose presence was declared to be ' a most favourable providence,'
containing a simple request for liberty to send a deputation to give
a true account of their deplorable sufferings. It is signed, ' R.
Hamiltoune in name of the Covenanted Army now in armes.''"' An
angel might honestly have subscribed it.
As Sabbath morning, the 22nd June, broke, Hamilton's pickets Bothweii
saw the Royalist musketeers across the Clyde blowing their matches
and ready for the advance to the bridge at Bothweii. The
Covenanters, through their wranglings reduced in number to four
thousand badly armed men, were drawn up in two bodies, the smaller
1 Kirkton, 463. ' I/re's Narr., t\Ti-
' Wodrow AfSS., xxxiii. 8 ; Wodrow, iii. loi.
* Ure's Narr., 474 note ; M'Crie, Veitdi, no ; Act. Pari. Scot., viii. App. 57.
' 'Original document,' ^(/r/. JfSS., 23251, fol. 22; 23244, fol. 14; Laud. Pap., iii. 260;
Wodrow, iii. 105 ; Kirkton, 465 ; Wilson, A True ami Impartial Relation, etc., 39 (Glas., 1797).
3IO
THE COVENANTERS
Skirmishes
and truces.
The fight at
Bothwell
Bridge,
Sabliath, 22nd
June 1679.
battalion near the bridge, and the main body on high ground near the
Little Park, Hamilton.^ The fine old narrow bridge with its guard-
house and toll-bar, when barricaded with stones, and adjacent dwelling-
houses, were an ideal strength for the brave defenders, none braver
than Hackston, Hall, Turnbull of the horse, and Fowler and Ross oi
the foot. The little brass piece defended the approach. The men of
Stirling, Clydesdale, and Galloway, the latter brave with banners and
terrible with pikes and halberds, stood on the south side of the bridge,
Hackston being in command on the left side, near the houses at
Bridgend.
By seven o'clock Monmouth's force was marshalled along the
north side of the Clyde, before the bridge, and some skirmishing took
place. During the preliminary confusion consequent on this advance
William Blackadder, bearing the address to Monmouth, accosted
Hamilton and got him to sign what he said he had not read, but
took on trust as the work of Cargill.- Two envoys with a drummer,
the former said to be David Hume, minister, and William Fergusson
of Caitloch — -other authorities mention Welsh, Captain M'Culloch,
Murdoch — crossed the bridge carrying the address.^ The drum of
truce returned to Hamilton, who, learning that Monmouth would only
treat with the Whigs if they first laid down their arms, cynically
replied, 'and hang next.'^ In turn Monmouth asked for Hamilton's
ultimatum, which was ' no surrender.'
The English park of artillery was trained on the bridge and the
foe, and when the gunners fired, the musketeers and the brass piece
replied with such effect that the timid Royalists abandoned the guns.
Incredible to tell, there was no brave Dingwall ready to leap the
barricade and spike the guns. They were manned again, and soon
made a way for the pioneers. Hackston, Ure of Shargarton, and the
men of Kippen and Galloway clung to their posts for two hours or
more, calling out for supports and ammunition, and being supplied
' Burnet, Hist., ii. 240. "- Faithful Contcndings, 195.
•' Blackadder, 225 ; Wodrow, iii. 106 ; Urcs Nair., 466 ; Terry, John Graham, 74 note
(citing Smith, Account, 119). * Ure's Nai>., 477.
■>s
<,
^
•^
THE RISE OF CLAVERHOUSE 311
with raisins, till they were forced to retire, with 'sore hearts,' fighting
as they retreated. Hamilton practically forbade a rally. Had he
not been both incompetent and in the sulks, he would have reinforced
the heroes, who, with a keg of powder, might have blown the bridge
into the river. On a rising ground on the edge of the moorland,
where the great public gibbet of the Nether Ward of Lanark stood,
was posted the sullen horde of conventiclers, without a leader, helpless
as a drove of sheep, while the army of Monmouth, headed by himself,
marched across the bridge in unbroken order. Linlithgow was colonel
of the foot-guards ; Montrose was colonel of the horse-guards. On
the first discharge of the cannon, the horses on both wings of the
insurgents' main body grew restive and stampeded, and before ten
men were killed in the action the foot was disordered as well.^
It was now ten o'clock. Monmouth loosed the cavalry under stampede of
Oglethorpe, Maine, and Claverhouse, and their thirsty swords com- '"'™*" "*•
pleted the debacle. Hamilton was the first to flee ; Claverhouse was
among the last to quit the scene of slaughter, where he ' and his
troop, mad for blood, did the most cruel execution.'^ ' When we fled
there was not ten men killed of us all,' Ure recorded.^ Some fugitives
who sought safety in the parish church of Hamilton were butchered
in the sacred edifice.* Before the dragoons could be got to desist
from slaying, some ' were knocked down by gentlemen of the life-
guard.'^ From Hackston's account of the fight we learn that after he
and the other defenders of the bridge had been compelled to fall back
upon the main body of Covenanters, and, as the Royalist troops filed
across the bridge, there was a movement of the Covenanters, which
was checked by the cry that their officers had deserted them. This
was followed by a stampede of two troops of horse under Thomas
Weir of Greenrig, formerly a trooper under Dalyell at Pentland,
apparently done wilfully to disorder the ranks of the infantry, as well
in the main body as in the reserve, on the left wing.
6
' Ure's NaiK, 483. '' Blackadder, Memoirs, ii-]. ^ M'Crie, Veitch, 483.
'' Dr. John Wilson, Duiining, its P<irochial History, ib (citing Secession Magazine).
'•' Blackadder, Memoirs, 228. Major RoUo captured a flag now preserved in Duncrub House.
" Hackston to Mac Ward, Failhful Contendings, 199, 200 note.
312 THE COVENANTERS
Credit was given to Peden, far away on the Borders, for seeing a
vision which made him refuse to preach, and constrained him to send
the people to pray, as he saw the soldiers ' hagging and hashing them
down and their blood is running like water.' ^ It is not to the credit
of the hair-splitting heroes that all escaped with sound skins, excepting
Balfour, who was shot in the thigh, and Cargill, who was left for dead
on the field and miraculously escaped death. Hamilton and his craven
staff slept in Loudoun Castle that night. Kid was caught in the first
bog. Many of the fugitives found refuge in the woods round Hamilton.
Some innocent persons were killed in the chase.^ Monmouth personally
did not follow far, and mercifully restrained the pursuers. On riding to
Crookedstone, near West Quarter, the dragoons met and slew William
Gordon of Earlston, a notorious old conventicler, returned exile, and
outlaw, on his way to join his son, Alexander, who married Janet,
only sister of Robert Hamilton.^ Alexander fled into a house in
Hamilton, and disguising himself as a woman rocking a cradle,
escaped the searchers.* Hundreds were slain in town and field.*
Few Royalists fell.
Surrender of A large body of the Covenanters, seemingly converted to a
policy of non-resistance, gave up their arms without striking a blow.
According to Blackadder, ' after the retreat was sounded they fell on
taking prisoners, which were above twelve hundred on the place, who
were all gathered together about a gallows that stood there, and kept
in that place all night (and made to lye flat on their faces on the
ground) with a strong guard.'" He also mentions the barbarities
* Six Saints, i. 53. ' Wodrow, iii. 108, 109.
' His tombstone in Glassford churchyard bears that he was sixty-five years of age :
Martyr Graves, 253. * Croolishanks, Hist., ii. 15.
' The numbers of slain and prisoners are variously stated : Wodrow gives See killed and
1 100 taken; Creichton, 700 or 800, and 1500; Burnet between 200 and 300, and 1200;
Blackadder, 400 and 1200 ; Law, 800 and 300. The figment found in Creichton's Memoirs
(p. 34), that the Whigs had the gibbet and a cart-load of ropes ready to hang the Royalists
wholesale, is a piece of Swift's delightful sarcasm. Yet the 'carts' disturbed the sober
judgment of Hill Burton {Hist., vii. 233), and the 'new ropes' similarly affected Mr. Andrew
Lang {Hist., iii. 353). The head of the moor, at the junction of Muir Street with Bothwell
Road and Almada Street, is still known as 'Gallowhill' and ' Gallowsknowe,' and as the
locality where the Nether Ward gibbet always stood. ** Pages 228-9.
a craven mob.
THE RISE OF CLAVERHOUSE 313
with which they were treated. They were stripped. The wounded
were prevented getting water, until some humane officers interfered.
Monmouth, with the feehngs of a true cavaHer spurned the counsel,
attributed to Claverhouse and Major White, that all the prisoners
should be put to death ; and this humanity was afterwards animad-
verted upon both in Scotland and at Court.' The Duke of York
thoug-ht what the Kingf afterwards said, 'that if he had been there
they should not have had the trouble of prisoners.' To this Monmouth
made a true soldier's reply : 'He could not kill men in cold blood ;
that was only for butchers.'"
Sharp was fully avenged ; the ' Blynk ' was over. The tide of
battle was turned before ten ; at noon the Council in Edinburgh were
discussing the news of victory, brought by a galloper, Lundin, thirty-
five miles as the crow flies.^ A courier left immediately for London,
but found himself outstripped by a flying packet of Robert Mein,
postmaster, whom the Council soon cited for his impertinence.^
While Monmouth remained in Clydesdale a few days establishing the
peace, and Claverhouse and other captains of horse rode through
Ayrshire avenging Drumclog, the prisoners, a sorry gang roped in Twelve hun-
pairs, stripped in terms of the Act, some wearing ' mutches,' were on enter EdTn""^
their way to Edinburgh, which they reached on Tuesday. Outside ^'^'S.^-
the city they were met by a jeering rabble, who insultingly inquired,
' Where 's your God .'' Where 's your God ? ' Their sufferings were
intense. Any expression of sympathy rendered a friend liable to
similar treatment under many statutes. All were martyrs of the
Blackadder type, and by compulsion now, and Blackadder advised
them to remain staunch in their bonds. Monmouth humanely
mitigated their lot. For want of room in the common prisons the
majority were penned in a vacant walled-in part of what is now
Greyfriars' Churchyard — the 'inner' or 'new yard.' The wounded
were confined in ' Heriot's Wark.' Fresh captures increased their
' Wodrow, iii. 112. * Burnet, ii. 240.
' Council's Letter to Lauderdale, 22nd June: A(M. MSS., 23244, fol. 16; Wodrow, iii.
113 note. * Reg. Sec. Cone, Dec, 260, nth July 1679.
VOL. IL 2 R
IH
THE COVENANTERS
Sufferings in
Greyfriars'
Churchyard.
Proclamation
of traitors.
number to fifteen hundred.' The enclosure, open to the elements,
was shelterless till in winter some sheds were erected. Few of the
prisoners were suitably clothed. Their ale was watered, their coarse
bread stinted, and drinking-water ill supplied. They were robbed of
their goods, and defrauded of the charities friends brought to them.
They stood by day, and lay on the earth at night in inclement
seasons. The militia sentinels were hostile, being made responsible
for the captives ; and, on an escape, they had ' to cast dice and
answer body for body for the fugitive.' Some escaped. Surgeons
were employed to succour and keep alive the wounded, because the
Council had resolved to send the most influential rebels to the gallows
and other four hundred to the plantations.
The fate of the fighters who escaped from the battle was nearly
as unbearable. John Stevenson of Cumreggan, Girvan, author of ^
Rare Soul-Strengthomtg and Comforting Cordial, joyfully recorded
how he lay for four months in winter in a haystack : ' One night when
lying in the fields I was all covered with snow in the morning. Many
nights have I lain with pleasure in the Churchyard of Old Dailly, and
made a grave my pillow.' ''
The Scots Privy Council did not delay issuing a ' Proclamation
against rebels, 26th June 1679,' declaring sixty-five of the leading
insurgents to be traitors, making it a crime to reset or have the
slightest dealings with them, and ordering the pursuit and appre-
hension of them, persons failing in their duty being held to be
accessory to treason. Some on this list were dead, others were
abroad, and the rest were the rebel ofiicers, small landholders, the
slayers of Sharp, and thirteen ministers.^ A very bad case of
oppression at this time was that of John Hamilton, Lord Bargany,
suspected of Covenanting, seditious leanings, study of denounced
treatises, friendship with Welsh, expressing joy at the Primate's
death, and other offences. Never brought to trial, he was thrown
into Blackness Castle prison, a victim of the perjury and subornation
' Wodrow, iii. 124, 125 ; Six Saints, ii. 131 ; Passages in the Lives of Helen Alexander, etc., 4.
^ Select niofc., ii. 471. 3 Wodrow, iii. 1 14 note.
THE RISE OF CLAVERHOUSE 315
of enemies who hankered after his estate. Bargany demanded a
public examination, but was frustrated by the Duke of York. The
little satisfaction which he had on his release on bail in June 1680
was increased at the Revolution, when he raised a regiment for the
public service and King William.'
The King thanked the Council for their loyal communication, and The King's
while approving of their proposal to transport three or four hundred "
prisoners, authorised the use of torture to elicit the causes of the
rising, and ordered the release of such as would bind themselves
never to revolt again.^ The clemency shown by Monmouth was to
be more strikingly illustrated by a proclamation of 'His Majesties
gracious pardon and indemnity,' which was to be interpreted with ' all
possible latitude and favour.' ^ This document, bearing the stamp of
the genius of Mackenzie and the callousness of Lauderdale, was a
trap to cause the unwary to make new admissions. It concluded by
giving increased powers to ' all otir other judicatures to pursue and
punish with all the severity that law can allow,' threateners of clergy,
murmurers against courts and Crown officials, and disseminators of
criticisms. The sting in the word murmur stabbed the nation to its
heart. Every trooper's blade was now whetted, and every militia-
man's fusil was charged anew.
Monmouth, after having been feted in Edinburgh, left Scotland Chase of the
on 6th July, the very day Claverhouse rode in Galloway close on m^o,
the track of Balfour and a small party of his Fife comrades, who,
after secreting their wounded leader in a den at Waterhead, escaped
into Douglasdale.* Welsh and Balfour were in a tight corner, the
more that the friendly lairds of Carrick warned Welsh of keeping
company any longer with the notorious ' Burgle.' After many a
chase and hairbreadth escape in the shires of Stirling, Perth, and
Fife, the men of Magus Moor separated, and Balfour escaped to
Holland in October. Claverhouse's westland route was marked by
' Wodrow, iii. 235, 236 note. - Ibid., 116 note.
^ Aldis, List, 2168 ; Wodrow, iii. 118 note; State Papers, 412, fol. 265.
• State Papers, 412, fol. 259 ; Kirkton, 473.
3i6 THE COVENANTERS
evidences of rapine, torture, and shedding of blood. He was in his
element, for the sacrificial track of blood was now sanctified by law.'
The soldiery may not have been so inhuman as the persecuted
made them out to be, but every fresh instruction was an incitement
The Act of to ferocity. The operation of the Act of Indemnity was immediate.
Many prisoners took the oath to rise no more in arms — an
acknowledgment of rebellion — and were released. Unfortunately
they received no written discharge, and at home found themselves
to be suspects still chargeable under other statutes. Visitors were
permitted to enter the prison and try conciliation. Four ministers,
Kennedy, Creighton, Jamison, and Johnston, tried to induce them to
take what the irreconcilables called 'The Black Bond.'^ Blackadder
wrote dissuading them from being ensnared.^ The slowness of the
Council in bringing the ringleaders to doom was displeasing both
to the King and to Lauderdale ; and a process was ordered without
delay. To mark the royal detestation of the Archbishop's murder,
the King commanded that nine prisoners — one for every assassin —
should be convicted, and hanged in chains on Magus Moor, for
owning the slayers. '' This order led to the examination of the
prisoners with these questions : ' Was the late rising rebellion .-'
Was the death of the Archbishop murder ? ' The result was the
furnishing of a list of the most obstinate or conscientious opponents
of the Government. The growing horrors of prison broke down the
fidelity of some who sought liberty on the Crown's terms. This
created a disruption, when a coterie of AduUamites, under Robert
Garnock, a fiery blacksmith from Stirling, refused longer to worship
with the supplicants, on the ground that their petition was a defection
acknowledging the rising to be sinful. To quell war in the jail the
Council gave the brawny leader of the disruption an oratory to him-
self in the Iron House, and made secret arrangements for deporting
petitioners and disruptionists without distinction.*
' Wodrow, iii. 120-2 ; Kirkton, 475 ; Martyr Graves, 124. In Galston Churchyard is a
memorial of ' Andrew Richmond . . . killed by Bloody Graham of Claverhouse, June 1679.'
- Wpdrow AfSS., xxxvi. 17. ' Six Saints, i. 53, 54.
* Letter, 26th July : Wodrow, iii. 127. '' Wodrow, iii. 130 ; T/ic Scots IVorthies, 466.
THE RISE OF CLAVERHOUSE 317
The Council had two notable field-preachers ready for the altar — Two clerical
John Kid, captured in a bog a few miles from Bothwell Bridge, anV^~. '
with a sword in his belt, and chaplain John King, seized on his way
to Arran by Captain Creichton. This herald of peace had two
pistols in his belt. The tale-weaving Swift makes Creichton at
Bothwell Bridge spy this ' braw muckle kerl with a white hat on him
and a great bob of ribbons on the cock o't,' a phenomenal dress for
a Puritan, who swore he left the field before the battle began ! ' The
Council expected important revelations from the two, and put Kid
in the horrid boots to assist his memory. They had no plot to
reveal. At their trial, on 28th July, their story, told in evidence
and petition, was that they were conventicle preachers, but so far
from being disloyal rebels, they advised the armed brethren to return
' to loyalty and Christianitie.' Kid further pleaded that Monmouth
had given him quarter, and that he carried a short sword merely to
disguise himself from being known as a preacher. King went further,
and protested that he did not know that the Balfour party were the
assassins, was actually a prisoner of the insurgents, had deserted at
Bothwell Bridge, and rested on the Proclamation. Their confession
of being at conventicles and carrying arms was damnatory enough.
Their request to lead proof was ignored. The altar was ready, and
the judges were in a hurry. The assize sent them to the gibbet at
the Cross and their heads and right hands to the Netherbow Port to
preach there with Guthrie's."
That day — 14th August — on which Kid and King were executed joy at their
was a gala day in Edinburgh. With every pomp, roaring guns, j^^^^"""^!
ringing bells, and other rejoicings at the Cross, the authorities in 1679-
the morning proclaimed the Royal Indemnity, ' commanding all our
judges to interpret this our remission and indemnity with all latitude ,
and favour.' In the afternoon the interpretation took the form of
the two preachers dangling with all possible longitude at the same
> Memoirs, 36 ; Wodrow, iii. 133 ; The Scots Worthies, 409-11.
' Wodrow, iii. 132-6 ; Petitions of Kid and King : Add. JlfSS., 23244, fol. 45 ; Hid., 47 ;
Laud. Pap., iii. 176, 177;^ ; //ist. A'ot., i. 228, 229 ; Booi of Adjournal, l6th-2Sth July 1679.
3i8 THE COVENANTERS
gay Cross. Their testimonies are the delightful expressions of valiant
manliness, Christian faith, and Covenanting honour.' Both victims
repudiated the charge of disloyalty. King specially adjured the
bystanders to pray for their persecutors and to obey the civil
authorities ' in the Lord.' That sense of humour so seldom associated
with men libelled as sour fanatics did not forsake the fearless pair
as they walked hand in hand to the gallows, Kid smilingly remark-
ing to the ' braw muckle kerl ' at his side : ' I have often heard and
read of a kid sacrifice.' Each left a wife and one child to mourn
his loss.
The smell of blood must have lingered long in the nostrils of the
four judges who wrote assuring King Charles that the execution of
Mitchell was a duty, and 'we are conscious of our own innocencie."''
Six bishops, also enthroned beside the bloody altar, wrote to Lauder-
dale, whom they styled ' the general patron of the Church under God
and our Royal Magistie,' praying him to continue his care of the
afflicted Church. So the political policy of rope and axe was the
prelatic one as well.*
Trial of On the 1 2th November, the trial of thirty-three prisoners in
bond!'^° ^ Greyfriars, who refused to take the bond, began. The judges treated
them with a show of lenity, taking each one aside to persuade him
to take the bond never to rise in arms.* Five or six held out. ' The
justices by their sentence ordained the five to be hanged up in chains
in Magus Moor [on the i8th November] to expiate and appease the
Archbishop's ghost who was there murdered, for tho' they were none
of the immediate actors of it, yet they were accessory for they would
not call it murder.'* Their testimonies, recorded in Naphiali, afford
indications of having been amended by some pious notary who
frequented jails. The sufferers express themselves more naturally
when 'settled upon the ladder.'
' Cf. later editions oi Nafhtali for these. - i/th July : Add. MSS., 23244, fol. H.
' Ibid., fol. 41. •* Fountainhall, Decisions, i, 62.
^ Ibid., 63. A warrant, dated 26th July 1679, to h^ns the slayers of Sharp in chains
on Magus Moor was sent down to Scotland : another, dated 15th August, ordered the execu-
tion of obstinate rebels : Warrant Book, 195, 241-2.
THE RISE OF CLAVERHOUSE 319
Thomas Brown, an Edinburgh shoemaker, said it was his first Thomas
and last visit to Fife ; that he rose in defence of the Gospel, and ' if "
this day every hair of his head were a man, and every drop of his
blood were a life, he would cordially and heartily lay them down for
Christ and this cause for which he is now sentenced,'
Andrew Sword, a weaver from Borgue, sweetly sang, ' O taste Andrew
and see that God is good. . . . None perish that Him trust' (Psalm
xxxiv.). He had never seen a bishop in his life, and would not, he
said, ' exchange my lot for a thousand worlds.'
James Wood, from Newmilns, had never seen a bishop, and con- J^^mes Wood.
fessed that his infirm arm and halberd had been at Bothwell, and that
it was his desire to the Lord ' that He would let me die a martyr.'
John Waddell, from New Monkland, was a staunch Covenanter, John Wadaeii.
willing to become ' a hinging witness ' against the evils of the day,
and ' not a whit discouraged to see my three brethren hinging before
mine eyes.'
The most touching scene of all was when John Glide, 'a poor John ciiJe
ploughman lad,' as he styled himself, left his weeping mother and her ^g^^Vovember
family at the gallows-foot, in order to ' welcome Lord Jesus ' — the lad '^79
being certain that his dutiful execution of Watson, the butcher in
Glasgow, was no barrier to his sanctification and his elevation to
angel-hood. Men of that courageous and also devout type were a
force in the land not to be despised and not to be readily exter-
minated. On the 1 8th November they were hanged, first on a great
gibbet on Magus Moor, then wrapped in chains, and left to rot there.
A stone marks the place of their execution.'
On the black morning of the 1 5th November, two hundred and shipwreck of
fifty-seven prisoners, in a gang, were hurried from Greyfriars down ■njur'^entl'^
to the Pier of Leith for transportation to a ship lying in the roads,
chartered by William Paterson, merchant in the city, to take them
to the plantations." For twelve days more the ship rocked at her
anchor, with her suffocating hold stowed full of the unfortunates :
' Martyr Graves, 182, 187, 193 ; Fleming, Ham^hook of St. Andrews (1902), 119-21.
2 Hist. Not., 1. 246.
320 THE COVENANTERS
through other twelve days of tempest she plunged seeking the Pent-
land Firth, with the unsanitary horrors experienced in Greyfriars
multiplying all the time. On loth December she tried an anchorage
off Deerness. At night the popish captain battened down the
hatches, as the rising storm drove the vessel ashore to be broken in
halves ; the captain and crew scrambled ashore and barbarously
battered those prisoners who had cut their way out, back over the
rocks into the raging sea, so that probably not more than fifty were
dashed to land alive. On bleak Scarvating the drowned were
buried.i
Legal processes The Privy Council had its hands full of lists of processes against
andoppres- Qygrt rebels and absentees from the musters, who were punishable by
sions. '■
death ; but their extra labours were compensated for by the hope of
forfeitures. The Council was instructed to announce the establish-
ment of circuit courts at seven centres in the troubled districts, to
have Porteous (portable) Rolls of rebels prepared, and to hang up
in every county in Scotland lifelike effigies of the Magus Moor
assassins, so that they might be recognised, 10,000 merks and an
indemnity being offered for Balfour and Hackston.-
The clerks of court, with the aid of local informers, sheriffs,
justices, incumbents, proceeded to make up the Porteous Roll of
all rebels and to take an inventory of their goods. Innocent persons
were often registered and falsely sworn against, a regular trade of
bribing and perjury being initiated before the suspects were sum-
moned to court to exculpate themselves. The result of this was that
Favourites Court favourites and loyal gentry were enriched with the heritable
enriched with property, and the officers and soldiery carried off the movables of the
forfeitures. , , t-, i • r i i • i • • -i /■
downtrodden Presbyterians, many of whom lay immured in jails for
long periods. A striking instance is that of Alexander Hamilton of
Kinkel, who having broken with Episcopacy, found himself outlawed,
intercommuned, his house turned into a garrison and displenished,
his family thrown out, his money filtered away, and himself cast into
' Wodrow, ill. 131 ; Hind Let Loose, 193 ; Shields, Hist, of Scot. Presly., 33.
' Proclamation, 14th August 1679 ; VVodiow, iii. 140 note.
THE RISE OF CLAVERHOUSE 321
prison twice.^ This was the kind of 'oppressions which make wise
men mad,' as the grievances were described in the Supplication to
Monmouth in 1679. The favoured of the Crown who received the
forfeitures were designated ' donators,' and on their instructions the
insolent soldiery became shameless spoliators where they pleased.
Even the Duke of Hamilton had to complain of the violence of the
agents of the Earl of Glencairn, who was donator of the movables in
the parish of East Monkland, and he got the military recalled."
The country groaned under these exactions, despite the kindly Monmouth's
efforts of the Duke of Buccleuch and Monmouth to obtain a recall of j,g„gj,cy.
obnoxious legislation. He succeeded in securing 'A Proclamation
suspending laws against Conventicles, June 29, 1679,' which authorised
the remission of fines and other disabilities to the confessedly peace-
able, and the licensed enrolment of loyal field-preachers, one for
each parish, with authority to dispense the Sacraments, provided they
were not in the last rebellion and gave a bond for good behaviour.
The Act applied to the Lowlands south of Tay, and excepted the
environs of Edinburgh, St. Andrews, Glasgow, and Stirling. The
cautionary bond of six thousand merks, according to Brown, was a
new form of disestablishment.^
This third Indulgence was of short duration. Early in July, the The third
prison doors were opened for ministers and conventiclers willing to " "sence.
accept the terms of the Indulgence. Some refused, but were liberated
on finding caution to appear when called upon. The emancipated
ministry met in August and tried to rehabilitate their decadent system
of Pre.sbytery, and soon fifteen quasi-parish ministers took up their
new role of Crown licensees in various districts.
Monmouth returned to Court to report, what he had spoken, that
'a gallanter gentry and more loving people I never saw.' After the
return of the Duke of York from Holland the influence of Monmouth
soon waned, and he was ostracised to Flanders on 24th September.
Lieutenant-General Thomas Dalyell now commanded the forces in
' Wodrow, iii. 145. '-' Ibid., 146.
^ Banders Disbanded, 50; Wodrow, iii. 14Q nolp. 152.
VOL. II. 2 S
3-2 THE COVENANTERS
Scotland, and was accountable to the King alone. His commission
is dated ist November 1679. His men began the chase of the Balfour
gang and all refusers of the bond. Sequestrators were appointed to
manage the properties seized, and the country swarmed with these
vampires.
Two other proclamations were published on 13th November — the
first prohibiting parishioners who had not taken the bond going to
hear the licensed preachers, and the second giving the peasantry who
had not taken the bond still another chance to do so.^
The quarrel between some Scots nobles of the Moderate party and
Lauderdale was still proceeding, and came to a height when, on the
King's birthday 1679, the English House of Commons presented an
address to the King, accusing Lauderdale of giving dangerous counsels,
and demanding his removal from office. The grievances of the Scots
Indictment of politicians were expressed in a memorandum entitled ' Some particulars
and his policy, of fact relating to the administration of affairs in Scotland under the
Duke of Lauderdale,' etc. It was a serious indictment of the executive,
and an epitome of the iniquities of the period. In its printed form
it created a sensation. The Council defended itself The King him-
self called the case, the complainants having advocates to explain it.
Sir George Mackenzie answered for the Crown. The King, 13th
July, decided that the faithful Lauderdale was 'most unjustly used,'
that the judicatories were calumniated by libellers, who were hence-
forth to be silenced as poisoners of the people, and that the Council
merited his thanks for hanging 'Mitchell, that enemy of society.'^
Hamilton and the Moderate party, who had complained of Lauder-
dale's ' excessive greatness,' were outgeneralled again. The pro-
nouncement boded ill for Presbyterians generally. It boded worse
when the Duke of Albany and York crossed the Borders, and on 4th
December, by the King's command, took his seat in the Privy Council
in Edinburgh without taking the oath. This was an intolerable exer-
cise of supremacy in view of the existing crisis in England over the
exclusion of James from the throne, the debates on which he was glad
' Wodrow, iii. 157 note. 2 Ibid.^ iii. 158-71.
THE RISE OF CLAVERHOUSE 323
to escape from. Rothes, Argyll, Moray, Hatton, and Mackenzie
had the manliness to protest against York's intrusion.' Tweeddale
imagined that York would checkmate Lauderdale in the north ; and
York, to serve his own purposes, pleaded for toleration.
The Lord Advocate now made a dead set against tlie disaffected Forfeiture of
lairds in Dumfries and Galloway, and early in July had thirty-five south-west.
of them forfeited and dispossessed. Among these were Patrick
M'Dowall of French, whose estate went to Claverhouse ; John Bell
of Whiteside, afterwards shot by Lag ; John Gibson of Auchenchain ;
John Gibson, younger of Ingliston, afterwards shot by the dragoons
of Douglas and Livingston, his property going to Douglas of Sten-
house ; William Fergusson of Caitloch ; Alexander Gordon of Earl-
ston ; James Gordon of Craichlaw — the lands of the last three were
given to Colonel Edmond Maine, Major Theophilus Ogilthorpe, and
Captain Henry Cornwall ; and Robert MacLellan of Barmagechan,
afterwards banished to New Jersey.'' The absentees from the muster*
of the militia included many Covenanters who had not appeared in
the rising. Lauderdale found the machinery of the Justiciary Court
too slow to undertake the multitudinous business of prosecuting these
men, and he transferred its functions to the Privy Council, whose
procedure was simplicity itself, — namely, summons of accused, his
non-compearance, forfeiture, appearance of a donator or sequestrator
on the land, and finally the disappearance of the victim. The year
closed with the signing of a warrant that certain persons should be
' gratified with shares of the forfeitures,' and among the number was
Claverhouse.'
' Letter, 6th November 1679 : Add. MSS., 23245, fol. 21 ; Letter that York was not to take
oath, 30th November 1679 '■ l^'^arrant Bopk, 328.
^ Act. Pari. ScoL, viii. 315, 323; Martyr Graves, 411, 444, 225-7 ; l^'arrani Book, 464,
2 1 St April 1680, for Freuch.
3 27 December 1679 ■ Warra7tt Book, 393.
324 THE COVENANTERS
CHAPTER XXVI I
THE REMNANT
Suffering, the
More than is warranted by evidence, writers prejudiced against the
Covenanters have laid too much stress upon the alleged retaliatory
actions and methods of parties of men who are supposed to have
been illustrators of the Covenanting spirit. Harassed though the
Lowland Covenanters were, their faith in most cases transmuted their
sufferings into an ineffable delight and glory for Jesus' sake, rather than
into yearnings for revenge. That ecstasy incited them to wish, pray
for, and expect misery and martyrdom in Christ's interest, and the
just judgment of God on evil-doers. Patient suffering, rather than
cult of the wrestling, was the cult of all save the extremest hillmen, of the type
persecu e . ^^ James Skene, who declared it to be his duty to kill soldiers, ' when
they persecuted God's people.' ' On the other hand, the gallant
Hackston confessed 'we were forced to fight' at Airsmoss." ' Rebel-
lion to kings is unbeseeming Christ's ministers,' wrote Rutherford to
Lady Kenmure.^ The outlawed MacWard, in his Poor Man's Cup
of Cold Water, counselled the persecuted, as 'Jewells surrounded by
the cutting irons "... to ' seal from your own experience the sweet-
ness of suffering for Christ,' since 'there is an inherent glory in
suffering for Christ.' His friend, John Brown, discussed this subject
in ten chapters in his work entitled Banders Disbanded, and while
stating that there was 'a proper season of suffering,' declared that it
required a divine revelation to tell when a tyrant was discharged.'
King, in his dying testimony, asserted : ' I have been loyal, and do
recommend it to all to be obedient to higher powers in the Lord.' *
1 Cloud (Thomson's edit.), 83. 2 /^/^^ jg 3 Letter, 4.
^ Pages 92, 93. '- NaplUali, 364.
THE REMNANT 325
Retaliation was no duty, according to Eraser of Brea, who declared :
' We are to be submissive to the commands of superiors, not to imitate
their practice.'' Nisbet of Hardhill confessed : ' I have longed these
sixteen years to seal the precious cause and interest of precious Christ
with my blood.' ^ This was not the malignant spirit of a bigoted
slayer of his fellows who held different views. Something more
than irrational obstinacy, something nobler than frantic superstition,
underlay the life and morale of martyrs who kissed the rope that
hanged them. ' If we had a hundred lives, we would willingly quit
them all for the truth of Christ,' was the gallant farewell of the
Enterkin Pass rescuers when upon the scaffold.
While Holyrood House rang with the revelry of the Court of The Duke of
the Duke and Duchess of York, as it had never done since the lute ^"'^^ '"g^° ^'
of Rizzio roused the galliards of Queen Mary, the Lowland moors
resounded with the plaintive psalms of the Remnant, who prayed and
fasted on account of their latest misfortune, in the arrival of the
popish heir to the Crown. ^ Claverhouse accompanied the Duke
from England, and had the Prince's ear. Long after the slave-ship
had recrossed the seas bringing him back from the plantations, John
Mathieson of Closeburn wrote : ' None knows the marrow and sweet-
ness that is to be had in suffering and contending for Christ, but
them that has felt.'* In the same strain wrote John Wilson : 'The
pleasantest time that ever I had was when I was joined with that
suffering remnant, while hunted as partridges upon the mountains
in following the persecuted gospel.' ° These threnodies formed a
marked contrast to the jubilations of the hierarchy and the 'orthodox
clergy.'
Richard Cameron returned from exile in October 1679. In Hoi- Return of
land he was preceded by the ill-natured gossip that he was a mere c/n,ejon^
babbler against the Indulgence ; but his intercourse with the ministers October 1679.
there proved that he was ' a man of a savory gospel spirit,' and, as
• Select Biog., ii. 368. = Ibid., 40S.
^ Domestic Ann., ii. 403-5 ; Arch. Scot., i. 499; Burnet, ii. 248, 254; Six Saints, i. 226;
Terry, yo/i« Graham, 8g.
* Coll. of Dying Testimonies, 187. ^ Ibid., 167.
326 THE COVENANTERS
MacWard announced, fit to 'go home and lift the fallen standard,'
all alone, too, if the home ministry would not help him. Before
leaving Holland, Cameron was ordained by Brown, MacWard, Hog,
and Koelman, in the Scots Church, Rotterdam.' Before lifting his
hand off Cameron's head, MacWard, as if reading off a mental vision,
pathetically exclaimed : ' Here is the head of a faithful minister and
servant of Jesus Christ, who shall lose the same for his Master's
interest, and shall be set up in the publick view of the world before
sun and moon.'"
On his return, Cameron found the whole country seething with
repressed discontent, met countless persons to whom Bothwell was a
bitter memory, and discovered only a remnant who preferred suffering,
to compliance with a hated rule, and death, to encouragement of those
evils certain to follow the advent of a popish prince. Cameron, in
the romantic enthusiasm of his youth, was mentally pledged to
an idealised conception of Protestantism, shorn of every defection
and innovation — Indulgence, Cess, Black Bond — a pietistic system
The spirit of demanding all for Christ. In this respect he was like Zinzendorf,
but without his extravagances and fanatical errors, and like him, too,
was almost a